Someone going by the nym "Hydra" said:
>I continue to be mystified by these kinds of discussions. Would
>someone take a moment to explain this phenomenon?
Kindly.
>If someone really writes a "FreeCF" and the Allaire Corp. goes
>down the tubes, then will we really all be better off?
What what? Who said anything about Allaire going down the tubes? Who said
anything about trying to put Allaire out of business? Certainly not me. I
happen to *like* CF. While I'm glad that my employer has to pay for it (and
Studio) and not me, I certainly don't want Allaire to go away any time soon.
>When all software is OpenSource, free, etc. then how do
>developers make a living?
You know, it's funny you asked this. I was just having this discussion with
a friend of mine last night down at IHOP. (Mmmm, blueberry blintzes. Num.)
We came to the conclusion that our society is trained to think that things
that you don't pay for have no value. Sad. Very sad. Let me educate you a
bit on how the majority of the free software (note the lack of
capitalization) industry works. When someone writes a chunk of code and
gives it away (for free), it normally goes with an understanding that it is
actually *unsupported*. You can have it for free, and use it for free, but
don't come whining to me if it breaks.
Let's take the most prominant example: Linux. Most versions of Linux are
available for download at no cost. The Red Hat distribution is probably the
most popular (last time I checked) and you can download it from their web
site. However, and this is the catch, if you don't pay for it then it is
unsupported. Where does Red Hat make their money? Support contracts. I,
as a single user, have no problem with running an unsupported copy of Red
Hat Linux at home. My employer, like most other companies, is a bit hazy on
the whole unsupported thing. So, they are willing to shell out the cash
just for the peace of mind in knowing that if they are needed, somewhere
operators are standing by. Have you ever seen how much Microsoft charges
for support? It's obscene. The $1K for the OS is trvial by comparison.
Support is where the money is.
Even with a FreeCF, Allaire would still be around. Why? Companies like
having people they can point the finger at when something goes wrong.
Getting back on topic ...
Peter Teobald said:
>If the original poster is really serious about writing a FreeCF,
>why doesn't he make better use of his valuable time and join the
>PHP project?
I can think of a couple of my personal motivations:
1. Because it's there. (read: because I'm a coder geek and it sounds like
fun to me)
2. Because if I want to run CF at my house so I can mess around with it
off-hours, I don't want to have to shell out $5K of my own money.
3. Because it'd be nice to point out a bug in CF to Allaire and then say
"the FreeCF folks had it fixed in a week, what's your deal?". (read:
competition is highly motivating)
4. Because it would then open the door for companies who could make a living
at supporting FreeCF. (By giving away software you'd be creating jobs?
Yep. Cool, huh?)
5. Because maybe, just maybe, it'd get to the point where FreeCF was
actually more useful to me than CF.
6. Really cool bragging rights.
Why not PHP or Mozilla or something? I did Mozilla. (Look at the list of
names of people who've submitted code. I'm in there.) PHP just doesn't
interest me. It's a rhetorical question, but what makes PHP a more valuable
project than a FreeCF?
Joe Hoffman writes:
>>Allaire gets how many thousand dollars per copy of CF?
>You say that as if maybe there is something wrong with that.
Didn't mean to sound like I think that there is anything *inherently* wrong
with it. I do think $5K is a bit outrageous, but there are more than enough
arguments about that one. Definitely don't want to start one here. :)
>It's the basis of a capitalist, free market economy. You
>work, you make the money ... not the motherland.
Oh, definitely. I'm a capitalist-pig-dog like any other red-blooded
American. :) However ...
>From what I understand from your post ... you want an independent solution
Precisely. I want competition. Remember that money is only half of
capitalism - competition is the other half. ;)
(By the way, I'm quite amused to see a post about capitalism coming from a
.gov address. Had a good chuckle at that one.)
Summing up:
Would a FreeCF put Allaire out of business? Nope.
Would it annoy the stuffing out of them (especially their tech support)?
Hopefully.
What is the primary benefit of having a FreeCF? Freedom of choice.
Yes, I really am this naive and optimistic. No, I haven't lived with my
parents in quite some time. Yes, I do write quite a bit of software that I
give away for free and I still manage to make quite a decent living. You
don't have to screw people over to get ahead in life. Really, you don't.
-Rick
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
To Unsubscribe visit
http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists&body=lists/cf_talk or send a
message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body.
