Re: Free Software Company

[Yogesh Ginde <yogeshg@xxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 12 Sep 2000, Arun Sharma wrote:
> 
> [1] I refuse to accept GPL'ed software as paid software. The only people
>     who pay for software that's free are fools. They pay for support.
> 

Not really. There are some good reasons for buying GPL'ed software and
support for it. The documentation that comes with most free software needs
a lot to be desired. Ofcourse, if one searches long enough on the Net,
almost any problem regarding the software can be solved. But many users
including corporates may not have the time, inclination or sometimes even
resources to do so. By paying for support they can atleast ensure that any
teething problems they have with the software will be solved. I'm sure
a lot of people give up using free software because they are not able to
operate it properly (because of inadequate documentation, or maybe because
it differs significantly from the proprietary software they are migrating
from). If these people want to pay someone to help them out, that does not
mean that they are "fools". They may simply be "technically
challenged". Another compelling reason to buy free software is that you
can get it on CD/DVD etc which saves a lot of time and money which would
be required to download the software. For instance, SuSE 6.4 costs
Rs. 1800 and comes on 6 CDs full of software. Are people who buy a Linux
distro fools too?

---
Yogesh Ginde
http://yogeshginde.tripod.com/

For some reason, this fortune reminds everyone of Marvin Zelkowitz.