This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz
by James Robertson.
Original Post: Software Value
Feed Title: Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants
Feed URL: http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/rssBlog/rssBlogView.xml
Feed Description: James Robertson comments on Cincom Smalltalk, the Smalltalk development community, and IT trends and issues in general.
Mark Bernstein talks about the flap that came up recently over data loss - have a look here, but be prepared for a huge rant and set of counter-rants. The bottom line is that this person lost an impressive amount of data, and was upset about it. As Mark points out,
All Software has bugs
This was beta software with warnings
That's not the point that I really want to get to though. Take a look at Mark's last paragraph:
Software pricing is out of whack. In the instance, an influential professional was using free 30-day trials to select a professional tool she used extensively every day, a tool that was close to the center of her worklife. How much would the successful vendor receive for winning the competition? $24.95. This is absurd.
This is a general problem in the software field right now. People expect tools to be either free or cheap. Ponder for yourself what it takes to pay a few developers - plus the hardware and software (and office space) that they need to work. Now factor in the potential size of their market - and consider how many copies they would have to sell at $24.95 to even come close to the break even point. Now, if that software is mission critical....
Previous Topic
