Re: Apple II shareware vs. open source

[email@DELETE_THIS.luddite.no-ip.com (Simon Williams)]

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.

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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