🚀 go-pugleaf

mathew@mantis.co.uk writes:
>
> There is, therefore, some merit to the argument that with
> commercial software you can demand a certain amount of support
> from the supplier which you can't demand with free software or
> GNU software.

It's true that you can't "demand" support of GNU software.  But
it's also true that you don't have to: GNU software is supported.

Contrast this with the commercial environment where, in my
experience, if the vendor isn't willing or able to provide
support, you are out of luck no matter how loud your demands
may be.

For example, we (Franklin) used to report an occasional bug in
Sun's cc.  We even provided small (10-15 line) example programs
which exercised the bugs.  I can't recall *ever* getting a fix
for *any* of them.  Eventually we quit trying.	I doubt things
have improved in the ensuing year or two, since Sun now sell
an ANSI C compiler, and therefore have even less incentive to
fix the one they provide free.

(Aside: why would anyone buy Sun's new C compiler, when they
couldn't manage to get their old one right even after at least
ten years of working on it?)

If I find a problem in GNU C, I have several options for
support:

  o  Wait for the next update -- it may already be available.
     GNU software is updated regularly.

  o  Post a message on the net.  Odds are, other people have
     seen this problem, and already have a patch to fix it.
     This doesn't work with commercial products, because
     you don't have their source available to patch.

  o  Send mail directly to Richard Stallman.  Although he's
     a busy guy (I'm told -- I've never met him) he remains
     directly involved in gcc development: see the gcc-1.39
     ChangeLog file.  This kind of personal accountability,
     for GNU software, or for any other product, makes for
     much more responsive support than can be expected from
     the anonymous "support department" of FooBar Corp, let
     alone an outfit as large as Sun.

  o  Dig through the source myself to find the problem, since
     the source is available.  I don't recommend this as the
     first thing to try, because it takes time away from
     productive work.  But if you run into a must-fix bug
     that won't wait, it's nice to be *able* to do this.

  o  Buy support from Cygnus, -- since support is their main
     line of work, one can expect them to be at least competent
     at it.  Disclaimer: I have no connection with Cygnus
     Support, and have never used their services, *because I
     haven't needed to* -- the other support options have been
     more than adequate for my needs.

In short, I find GNU software *much* better supported than
many commercial packages.  For me, this is actually a better
reason to use GNU stuff than the fact that it's costless.

Jesse Perry   jesse@franklin.com   uunet!frnkmth!jesse