Laura Conrad wrote:
>
> >>>>> "Frank" == Frank Nordberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> Frank> I don't know what you mean with "stable", Laura. Finale has
> Frank> been around for more than ten years now and has remained
> Frank> more or less the industial standard for most of that
> Frank> period.
>
> I may be tarring all commercial developers with the Microsoft brush,
well, the answer to that is both yes and no. It's obviously wrong to
claim that all commercial software manufacturers think of is profit. But
most of them are certainly more concerned about money than what is
healthy - although luckily very few are as extreme as MS.
The Finale manufacturer, Coda, started off as an extremely idealistic
company, run by and for musicians. After a while it suddenly became
extremely commercial, porting the program to Windows with the sole
purpose of widening the market, reducing user support and general
following up to less than bare-bones and venturing into marketing
campaigns with claims they couldn't possibly fullfill. Fortunately this
didn't last very long, and I'd say that Coda today is about average -
perhaps slightly better - for a commercial software house.
But Open Source isn't the One Great Solution To All Software Problems
either. All this talk abut free software is nice, of course.
Unfortunately the TANSTAFL principle applies here as everywhere else.
TCO is difficult - often impossible - to calculate, but that doesn't
mean it's not important.
One of the most common arguments I hear used against commercial
software, is that the user has far to little influence over how the
program is to be. I suppose that is true. In fact I believe that
statement is equally true for commercial programs and for Open Source.
> but as far as I know the etf format isn't guaranteed not to change.
True - just like everything else.
> And I don't know what the quality of the documentation is.
Do you want me to send you a copy so you can see for yourself?
>
> Frank> I don't think any other notation software system can claim
> Frank> anything like that. ETF files writeen ten years ago are
> Frank> still fully readable by today's versions of Finale (and
> Frank> soon Lilypond as well).
>
> I don't know on what you base that prediction.
Oh well, I can dream, can't I?
Frank Nordberg
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