Re: Apple II shareware vs. open source

["Greg Andrzejewski" <pressyourluck85@yahoo.com>]

"Simon Williams" <email@DELETE_THIS.luddite.no-ip.com> wrote in message 
news:1gr1kee.xv7t7c1jc0bdgN%email@DELETE_THIS.luddite.no-ip.com...
> Exegete <royandjanet@inebraska.com> wrote:
>
>> Further, there IS open source work being done. Did he mention it? No.
>> Why not? Hmmm??
>
> Probably because it's not often announced or commented on here at
> CSA2...
>
> I think the problem is not so much that there isn't anything going on,
> just that what is happening is rather spread out and not everyone is
> aware of all the various sources of information.
>
> As far as the idea that developers are trying to make outrageous profits
> from the A2 community, I think it's dependent mainly on nature of the
> developer... for example, Intrec is not likely to open-source ProTerm
> because it is their flagship product (and maybe their only one)... it is
> quite obvious that sales of ProTerm A2 are hardly consequential since
> they have _still_ not updated their website to reflect the fact that
> ProTerm is now selling for $19.99 as opposed to the $59.99 or whatever
> is listed. At $19.99, I'd consider ProTerm a pretty good value,
> considering what people are willing to pay for hardware, but I suppose
> the problem is that a lot of people see non-physical goods (software,
> music etc) as being devoid of instrinsic value... even my parents, who
> are very conservative, think nothing of using pirated software, whereas
> it would never even cross their minds to shoplift a loaf of bread.
>
> In some cases a lack of openness can be more detrimental... for
> instance, I'm quite sure the LanceGS would be very popular if more
> supporting software. (My understanding is that the developer is not very
> forthcoming with information on that particular device). I'm sure I'm
> not the only one who would be more than happy to shell out the big bucks
> if I thought I had a good chance of actually doing something with it.

Isn't the LanceGS compatible with Marinetti? So, any application that uses 
Marinetti will work with the LanceGS, right? Similarly, I think there's only 
a handful of applications that utilize Marinetti. The high price of the card 
has been the biggest factor preventing me from purchasing one.

-Greg

>
> I think another point of contention is that some of the few remaining
> software vendors price their goods as though they were selling current
> titles for Mac or Windows. Like it or not, the Apple II is now pretty
> much just a hobby platform and consequently most users are simply not
> willing to pay a premium for software.
>
> Well, I didn't mean to ramble on so... and I'm seemingly quite
> off-topic. Oh well...
>
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