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Re: [LUG] GLUG - free and non-free



On Monday 11 October 2004 12:16, Neil Williams wrote:
On Monday 11 October 2004 10:23 am, Jon Lawrence wrote:

I agree with everything else, except this:
Writing code costs money - there's no doubt about this.

Writing code does not cost any money. SUPPORTING code costs bucket loads of
money.

Sorry, but no. Writing code costs money (for most people) whether it is 
significant amounts or not depends on how many people are writing that code. 
Computers cost money, heating costs money, and last time I checked my 
electricity wasn't free :) The actual coding itself costs time.
Just to point out, I'm not a coder as such never mind one good enough to 
charge for my work
But as we agree, these costs bare into insignificance compared to supporting 
said software.
If a company charges for software then they can damn well support it.
Also I believe that if they charge me for their software which then crashes my 
system causing loss of data/work, then they owe me compensation. This is 
normally refused as a condition in their license, but clauses are widely 
believed to be unenforceable - but I've never come across any court cases 
that challenge these clauses (not that I've looked closely).

It is my belief that companies that charge for software (then offer little or 
no support) will die where as companies that effectively give away software 
(or at least the source) and charge for support will prosper - time will 
tell.

Jon

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