> Alain : No one has commented yet on my suggestion to reserve the right
> of OC distribution/resale for us, so that we can auto-finance our
> activities. Comments?
I think we would make more money if we got everybody
and their grandmother distributing OT (CD or otherwise)
and we charged for services like scripting, the ability
to be a "priority customer" when requesting certain
features be added, and documentation in book form.
The logic goes like this:
If we reserve distribution rights to ourselves, we limit
or ability to generate customers and are then charged
with the responsibility to police and enforce that.
OTH, we give away distribution rights, and make it spread
like a virus, embed the interpreter in every application
that has a scripting language, and make it so easy to add
an OT interpreter to your application that OT is all of
a sudden the scripting language of choice, we, being the
OT gurus are now a critical resource to those people.
Sure they could hire someone else, or learn to do it
themselves, but it's easier to hire us.
I am specifically thinking of the Multimedia development
business. Most of them have very few programmers, and
not many know C++, so if they need a specialized plugin,
they are going to turn to us first. Why? Because they think
we know what we are doing (and for the most part we do).
We get a great reputation for providing them with a tool
that makes their business the best in the business, and they
hire us to make sure they can deliver their products on time
and can call us if they have an emergency. People who
aren't computer fluent (and even some who are) will pay
money to have a phone number or email address they can
call when things don't go well. They don't understand OT
the way we will, and they would rather keep it that way if
they can.
I say we give OT away completely free, encourage people
distribute it however they want, make sure the code
for the interpreter is Open Source to protect our
investment, I like the LGPL and do not consider standalones
"derived works" which means standalones can be released
under any license the end user wants, and then we sell
the documentation, personal attention, and custom services.
"If you want to make sure your feature, or functional
equivalent, gets added... pay us and we'll add it, or just
add it yourself, you get to choose."
"Documentation? You just print it on your black and
white laser printer on hole punched paper that will rip
out because you are flipping through it over and over
and then stick it in the plain three ring binder, but why
when you can have a nicely bound book. If you want a
pretty, easy to read, well indexed, hard copy of the
documentation, send your check or money order for
<insert reasonably low price here> to <trusted recipient>"
-- Michael --
