🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <890606.09372998.007881@SFA.CP6> Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET (Z4648252) writes:
 [ much good stuff deleted ]
>    I still feel that we can and deserve better software.  Calamus is
>the only package that I was using with my price argument and really
>regret that I put that to be taken as all software.  But I will argue
>that most of our commercial grade software has been buggy and we
>don't deserve such.
>
>Larry Rymal <Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET>


Perhaps we don't "deserve" it but if you want "polished" software,
somebody's got to finance it.   If it's going to cost a certain
amount of money to develop a product and bring it to market, then
you have to sell enough units to pay for that amount and the ongoing
overhead and cost-of-goods to produce those units.  Companies can
afford to spend more on the devlopment and marketing of PC and Mac
software becuase they know they can sell more units and probably
at a higher sale price each, as compared to the ST.

Until the total number of ST's goes up and more software buyers exist,
ST users that want better software are just going to have to either
develop it themselves or help pay for the development. As it is now,
ST users want the cheapest software.  A program for the ST that is
very similar to a PC program, often sells for a lot less money.

It costs about the same to produce a PC or ST product.  No company
wants to fund a project into the red so you won't see the same amount
of money put into an ST product as a successfull company will spend
on a PC or Mac product.   And the companies that do spend that much
money on an ST product simply won't be there long enough to provide
on-going support, unless they have revenues from some other source
to keep them going.

It's the American way.  The almighty dollar.  When there are enough
buyers who will pay enough money to justify the development costs,
you will see the kinds of polished programs you want.

It's kind of a Catch-22.   You can't get the programs until you get
the volume but you can't get the volume until you get the programs.
Apple solved it for the Mac - but it wasn't cheap.   Can Atari do
it?   I guess we'll all see.
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