🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <833326261snz@wash.demon.co.uk>
           john@wash.demon.co.uk "John Washington" writes:

> Actually, if it's not off-topic here, would you be prepared
> to discuss the pro's and con's of writing shareware, Tim?
> (After all, it is a development issue, in a way).  I tried
> it, a while back, and got rather cheesed off with it.

Well, if you don't mind me joining in...

I probably wouldn't write shareware myself, perhaps mainly because of the
amount of freeware I actually use myself (considering I also use Linux).

Although the GPL is a bit wierd at times, I think it does permit better
quality programs, due to the peer review aspect (although a lot of code is
not reviewed as such, but I trust the Linux kernel much more than, say,
Windows 95).  Your own fiddling with Simple News must have demonstrated to
you the positive aspect of free software -- would you have been able to
produce snzprune or mail2snz without the chunks of Snews you keep on telling
me you rip out?

I have also learnt a lot from reading the source code of freeware programs
(I have never taken a programming course, and apart from the multitude of
BASIC programming books I had as a kid, very few programming books indeed.
(Mainly references)).  Nearly all the money I spend on computers goes on
hardware. #100 of hardware goes a *lot* further than the equivalent #100
of software. (except perhaps languages, but even then I am moving to djgpp)

As such, I feel I have taken a great deal from the programming world in
general, and writing my own freeware programs is my way of putting
something back.  (And it's always nice when you get e-mails about your
programs, although I am always slightly nervous of disastrous bug reports
when I get mail to support@tsys... :)

I did once register some shareware, however, so not all hope is lost.  I would
always consider favourably a free alternative to shareware, though, to the
extent of quite a lot of loss of functionality :|

.splitbung
-- 
* TQ 1.0 * The 'Just So Quotes'.
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