🚀 go-pugleaf

toms@pdx069.intel.com (Tom Shott) writes:
>If people couldn't write shareware for PCs, many would still program and
>give away software for free.  My understanding is most shareware never
>really makes any money but it does stiffle improvments.  It's imformation
>hoarding. Let's hope there is never a good way to provide shareware on
>UNIX.

"Shareware" and "provided with source code" are totally independent.
There's nothing stopping you from releasing a shareware program with
source code and with permission given to modify the source and produce
new versions.  Likewise, people release freeware things all the time
that have all sorts of restirctions on them.  "No derivative works
without my permission" and the like.

Also: without shareware everyone would actually be *paying* for gems
like Commander Keen IV instead of playing them for a couple weeks and
deciding they're "not worth the money."

Shareware is an absolute *gift* to the user community -- *yes* almost
no one makes money on shareware, and in a market as thoroughly
dominated by commecial software as the microcomputer markets are, many
of the people who you claim would just "give software away for free"
would simply go completely commercial.

Dave Baggett
-- 
ADVENTIONS: interactive fiction (text adventures) for the 90's!
dmb@wam.umd.edu ** Compu$erve: 76440,2671 ** GEnie: A.DVENTIONS