Thursday, May 20, 2004|
implications One of the more obvious implications of UserLand releasing the Frontier core as open source is this: Instead of using smake and mirrors, I could directly embed Python into Frontier. I could make this version available, and then people could use it to run Manila or Radio and take advantage of the Python goodness lurking beneath. I could also revive the Python IDE effot, and roll in a more general syntax coloring feature.
There are many things that will become more easy and possible once the
code has been freed. |
|
software pricing With the new licensing terms of Movable Type being debated ad nauseum on blogs seemingly just about everywhere, I thought I'd add my two cents somewhat indirectly. Dave's Theory of Software Pricing: The higher the cost of the software, the less likely it is for the software to work for you out of the box. Conversely, the less expensive it is, the better it has to work out of the box. Why does it work that way? If the software doesn't cost much, you don't lose much by dropping it and trying something else. On the other hand, if you just had to take out a loan to buy an expensive package, it is in your best interest to make it work by any means necessary. I've seen many instances where a company invests a large amount of money in a software package, only to follow it up with large payouts to consultants who then make the software actually work for you. I continually marvelled that these salesmen could ask for such large amounts of money and then hand us something that limps rather than runs.
The unfortunate lesson here is that if you want to sell a
mostly-functional system and continue to have customers, charge a lot of
money. I don't know why, but it seems to work. |
Last update: 6/29/2005; 4:25:18 PM .
