Re: [MacPerl-Forum] Re: [MacPerl] Any shareware advice ?

[Joshua Juran <wanderer@metamage.com>]

At 10:52 AM -0400 1999-07-26, Ronald J Kimball wrote:
>On Mon, Jul 26, 1999 at 04:55:39AM -0400, Joshua Juran wrote:
>> I think webslave is talking about something I have also thought about:
>> Distribute the source for free, and the distribution (compiled executable
>> plus other files) as shareware.  This is clearly legit if it's your
>> software -- you can do anything you want with it.  Otherwise, I wonder if
>> charging a few bucks for preparing the distribution qualifies as a
>> "reasonable copying fee".  So it's completely open, but you can still make
>> money off those who don't want the hassle of compiling it themselves.  That
>> wouldn't go over so well in unixland, but on the Mac we're used to being
>> asked to pay for shareware.
>>
>
>Why do you say it wouldn't go over so well in unixland?  Isn't that how Red
>Hat et al. make money?

If you buy the box with the CD and the manual, which also gets you tech
support.  Not if you download it yourself.  I'm talking about charging for
something you download.

It wouldn't work in unixland, because you just download the development
packages and 'make' the program.  Not so easy on the Mac, so perhaps you
could charge for the service of producing the compiled executable.  After
all, if you paid for the compiler, I think it's reasonable to defray that
cost by asking of those who benefit from it -- the ones who download the
binary package.  No free lunch here, but you're more than welcome to
download the source and hack it to your heart's content.  I think that is
within the spirit of the GPL.

Josh

--
Joshua Juran                          Metamage Software Creations
=)                                         Tools for Wizards
wanderer@metamage.com
<http://www.metamage.com/>   * Creation at the highest state of the art *



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