"rights" and "freedoms"

[David Johnson]

On Thu, 14 Oct 1999, Rodent of Unusual Size wrote:
> David Johnson wrote:
> > 
> > and 4) Just sell the software. Enough people will buy it to
> > support the developers. Yeah, right! Why give $59.95 to AbiSource
> > when I can get it for $2 from cheapbytes along with everything
> > else on a Linux distro.
> > 
> > So, all in all, I don't see any way for AbiSource to legitimately
> > make money. Am I missing something very basic?
> 
> Dunno.  My sister just sold on eBay for US$12 some brand-name
> chocolate she bought for US$4.99.  Barnum's Theorem would
> seem to be a factor here.  Why do people pay US$50 (or is it
> US$75 now?) for Red Hat's distribution when it's on the
> 'net for the price of the bandwidth?  Why do people buy
> paper copies of books and documents available for free on the
> 'net?

First of all, people pay Redhat 75$ for support, the non-free programs and a
printed manual. AbiWord does not need the level of support that an OS has.
Adding non-free stuff to AbiWord negates the whole premise of what to do when
all software is Free. And if they expect to make their money writing manuals,
then stop paying developers and start paying writers.

Second, people buy those very few Free books in paper form because they desire
to have something to hold or a book that can be read without the use of a
computer. Neither of which work for AbiWord.

I guess that leaves us with AbiSource selling their stuff on eBay :-)

-- 
David Johnson
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