From: Jon Glass (jonglass_at_usa.net)
Date: Sat Sep 07 2002 - 08:29:34 PDT
on 9/6/02 9:46 PM, Trent Tuggle at tuggle_at_acusoft.com wrote:
> Are any of these cases simply a matter of the author not knowing that anyone
> still cares for the Newton anymore? Could we contact those authors and let
> them know that they can still impact the community if they give up their
> software rather than burying it? Do you think some of those authors would
> be amenable to such an idea?
There are several things tied up in this. One is that the software for the
Newton was usually linked with the user name. To undo that requires work. If
a person is giving something away, he probably doesn't want to go through
the extra work of writing more code or modifying code for this exercise.
Then again, if I spent hours creating something that was a reflection of me,
and that I valued, and I did it expecting a validation of that through
payments, I would find it hard to simply "give it away." I mean, if you
weren't willing to pay to use it, why should I let you have it for free?
It's kind of a slap in the face of the software developer, if you get my
drift. Then there are also those who really do think that nobody uses or
cares for this stuff anymore, who might be compelled to give it away, if
they thought it would be appreciated. And there are probably also those who
are quite angry with being dumped like they were, and out of vengeance or
whatnot, they will not give their software away.
It is really a combination amongst the above and several other potential
reasons. The best you can do is ask, and then respect the wishes of the
author. That is the best thing to do. I know that some people will disagree
with me, but then again, we would disagree on many other related issues as
well. :-)
I personally hate it when this subject comes up. There are some strong
feelings on either side, and it always creates a bad atmosphere (and
probably good fodder for our resident research scientists). ;-)
-- Jon Glass Krakow, Poland <jonglass_at_usa.net> <glasshaus5_at_aol.com> Sometimes the majority only means that all the fools are on the same side. -- Read the List FAQ/Etiquette: http://www.newtontalk.net/faq.html Read the Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ This is the NewtonTalk mailing list - http://www.newtontalk.net/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon May 26 2003 - 12:59:20 PDT