Dne Fri, 27 Aug 1999 03:55:54 +0000, Older PC and DOS Internet Forum napsal:
>> Won't hurt from user's side for sure <g> I meant from
>> developer's side. Say if the project started as shareware from
>> scratch, will the registrations cover the _working_time_ (read:
>> initial costs) invested?
> Again, ask Michael. He just returned from a buisness trip in the US.
> He seemed to get several deals from large companies. They will never
> admit it, but they all are looking for cheap internet solutions.
> DOS internet suites are just the ticket. (that, and linux.)
I would like to let you know, that I have noticed, that cost of comfortable
life in Czech Republic is cca 30% of realy minimalistic, plain survival
lifestyle in USA. And even in Czech Republic, I wouldn't survive from
the individual registrations - they are nice, they make me feel obliged
to the users, but they are definitely not for real life. And it's in
Czech Republic, where living costs are 30% of living cost in USA - in
fact, some people are living quite decently for 4000 USD per year here,
and 20000 USD per year would be considered to enough for really very,
very comfortable life in Czech Republic. I am talking about middle and
upper middle class.
So, if you want to develop shareware for DOS, I bet you should first
move to Central or Eastern Europe ;-) Even with very, very tough
shareware registration policy (which is not case of Arachhne) and lot
of free promotion from fans (which is the case of Arachne), it can't
cover your costs. But of course, you can try to persuade some investor
to take the risk and give you some money ;-))
> Also, lets not forget the small companies with DOS-based networks,
> who do not see the point on 'upgrading' to Windows 95 or changing to
> Linux, due to having to port or write all their software to another
> platform..
This is true. Consider all thouse electronic counter with Hercules
monitors. We have just got on such tiny 9" thing with Hercules card, in
order to develop Hercules support to Arachne.
>> I doubt the project will suceed if started as pure public domain
>> or freeware. Many previous DOS browser projects arranged this
>> way either doomed or never leave dreamboat (search the list
>> archive). Quite understandable, since the participans usually
>> put freebie projects like this in the very bottom of their
>> priority "to do" list.
> I think that Arachne worked because it was made as a 'company product'
> and not a 'freeware product'. The fact that you own a company and
> that this is one of your main products gives you quite a push to
> work on it.
"Own a company" is quuite a funny phrase. Yes, currently me and my
brother and two or three more people rented a server, an office, and
wireless internet connection and call ourselves Arachne Labs. But all I
owned when I started Arachne was semi-legal analogue phone line,
connected through one of those switching centrals from World War II
which cause every connection to reset after few minutes - the bills for
the phone line were addressed to my dead grandfather, and I couldn't
transfer the registration for the line, because all heirs must personaly
agree and my father's brother lives in Canada ;-)))) In addition to
that, I had fine-tuned 386 with 5 (!) MB of RAM and 600 MB hard disk
space and quite powerful development enviroment for DOS, inherited from
IBASE project. Would you call this a company ? ;-)))
>> Depends... Boanne once told me that she started using Arachne
>> after saw it mentioned on TV (that's in the US off course). So
>> what make it so good that worth published on TV? ;)
> hmm.. havent tried TV shows. We got about 2 computer TV shows here.
> Worth a try.
The funny thing is, that by the time it was on TV everywhere (two years
ago), it was really a crapy software. No really Netscape compatible,
not really stable, not really usable. It were money from Caldera which
turned Arachne into what is it now. Funny thing is, that they finally
developed their own line, because they thought that I am proceeding two
slow or unreliable, or what....
> Here are the facts that I know:
> (i'll concentrate on Arachne because I am not really experienced
> with NetTamer. Please fill me up in the NetTamer part.)
> As far as I know of Arachne and NetTamer, both are:
> 1)Small browsers that do not take lots of space.
> 2)Both of them 'do the impossible'. (give you almost full internet
> accessability under DOS).
> 3)They are extendable (APMs. But I dont know about NetTamer.)
NetTamer has configurable editor, I think ;)
> 4)And it doesnt cost alot to register for it.. I'll admit that
> Arachne was so far the only shareware that I
> ever -wanted- to register.
Maybe because it was he only shareware you really HAD NOT register
at least for private noncommercial use ? With exception of the NAF
period...
Funny thing is, that I didn't get all the money from personal
registrations at all. I have got some of 1997 money, and all 1999 money,
but most of the money from 1997 and 1998 somehow diseappeared when NAF
was taking care from the web server and the registration....
> Having a small browser that works on DOS saved me several times,
> last time was when my P350 had the disk crash. I am now writing
> this on my 486. Thanks to these utilities, I can keep on what
> I do on the internet even though i'm "stuck" with the 486 that I
> built some time ago as a hobby.
What is true is, that DOS is the only system simple enough for most
people to let's say analyze current system configuration within ew
minutes. Linux can be either provided with nifty front end - and then it
becomes as confusing and uncontrolable as Windows - or you can spend
weeks trying to understand all the conffiguration files in /etc directory
... it's powerful, but it can't completely fill the niche which
remained abandoned after DOS.
DOS can be in fact seen as "microkernel" system from certain point of view.
The DOS apps in their separate directories took care about really
everything, completely not dependent on each other, with strictly defined
interface between them - files of certain formats.
It was pretty easy to undersand for logicaly thinking people, pretty easy
to write new applications. Compare this simplicity to systems which
claimed they will be user friendly - the reached such level of
complexity, that users are not able to actualy understand reasons why
this or that is not working. Interface is not strictly defined
(upgrading certain application may result in overwriting shared
libraries essential for other apps - this is true for both Windows and
Linux), in strictly GUI systems, programs are not always able to easily
configure all system as applications are configured by clicking, not by
text based configuration files... maybe it's really time for some kind
of "new DOS": fast and simple system for personal use. But I still feel
like simplifying (or better understanding) Linux may be the way to go...
--
Michael Polak, xChaos software
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