From: jmorriso@ee.ubc.ca (John Paul Morrison)
Subject: Re: harmful effects of gnu software
Organization: University of BC, Electrical Engineering
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 23:10:10 GMT

In article <1993Jan10.062319.17213@news2.cis.umn.edu> tyrell@herring.micro.umn.edu (john drexler) writes:
>Now look:
>
>I have followed the gnu project for some time, and do like (and, I admit, use )
>the products that you have created. However, enough is enough. The PRINCIPLES 
>upon which the gnu project was formed are quite harmful to the software industry
>and software programmers in general.

oh that's BS!
>
>	Now I realize I am not going to change your mind, but listen:

>
>	You are doing the equivalent to what the Japanese microchip industry
>did to the United States counterpart: dumping. Every time you create a software
>product, and give it out -- free -- to the public, some private software 
>developer is taking the brunt of it. 
>	A software developer -- in the attempt to make a living -- creates a 
>software program. In order for him to subsist, he HAS to charge a considerable
>fee to pay for his time and effort in developing the product.
>	Now YOU develop similar software for free. Which software would you 
>pick as a consumer? A: Joe Schmoe's word processor -- 129.95 or B: Richard 
>Stallman's super-duper gnu processor -- GRATIS. The choice is easy (as far
>as the consumer is concerned, and Joe Schmoe, software developer,  
>gets it directly in the teeth. 

Gnu Software is harmless to the consumer/non-technical/commodity software
market. Gnu only has research/hacker/academic level software. The Gnu compiler
is a shining example of this work.

But normal joe or jane user would ever use Gnu software. Take a look at
the home and office market. Theye are totally different 'markets' from the
user base Gnu, and others who distribute under similar schemes (Linux for
Intel/IBM machines, the EMX DOS-OS/2 development system (which uses the Gnu
compiler but C library and other tools were written for OS/2).

Taking emacs and TeX and forcing that on unsuspecting secretaries,
and expecting them to produce work would give them nervous breakdowns, and
would set back office automation for  years. Microsoft, Lotus, WordPerfect
Borla, have all tailored their products to make them easy to use, non cryptic, 
and they make regular office and home users productive. Their software
more or less what the user wants to do, not what is academically elegant,
or portable just for portability's sake.

Gnu obviously isn't a threat, because they have deliberately ignored the 
largest base of any computer users: MSDOS. They have ignored DOS for esthetic
reasons, and that's fine. But it's not like it would make much differnce,
because Gnu stuff is written for hackers on cryptic, command line
interfaces, not for plain simple users who just want to put a pretty box
on the page, without wading through bizarre incantations and \weird \macros.

Your dumping cry is the typical US whine for making a scapegoat, just like
the USA does in trade: cry dumping when someone else beats you at your
own game, while pretending to support free-markets. 'Fair trade' isnt
the same things as Free trade. Fair trade is about crying and stomping
your feet when you lose, and righteous indignation and rhetoric over 
principles when another government uses the same trade barriers you do. 

You are just looking for an excuse to dump on Gnu. I look forward to 
new, nifty tools, but I will be very surprised if Gnu ever matches the
quality and support that Lotus or Microsoft gives their users in
spreadsheets and wordprocessors. Compilers are a different story, and
all the power to Gnu for getting compiler research and opzations out
of teh lab and into the hands of programmers; obviously Microsoft hasn't
learnt anything about writing compilers.
>
>	Aha -- but you say -- the development of free software stimulates the 
>use of tools for other programmers to use in the future, to build off what 
>you develop... WRONG.
>	Your software gets people in VERY bad habits. They learn that what 
>'they get off the net is free'	and 'why should we pay money for software? We'll
>just wait until the gnu group, or some shareware group does it for free!'. I 
>know this first hand, because gradually, people are 'coming around' to this 
>way of thinking.
>
Almost nobody has net access. The closest most people get is the
Fidonet wasteland,  and last I checked, they was a time lag of
weeks in information propagation, from the latets Internet developments.
99% or so of people don't even know what BBS are, and they get their
software through MIS. it's not like a few trivial screensavers
downloaded from a BBS are going to dent the bread and butter of the
Spreaadsheetm Wordprocessor and Database applications market. Gnu is no
competition to this market.

>	All of the above is sad news for the future software developer. Why
>ON EARTH spend 20,000+ on a college education, if the market that you are going
>to go into is being deliberately sabatoged at every turn by some person who
>-- out of misguided loyalties -- is periodically dumping products onto the 
>market. I am one these folks, and sorry to say, I do not feel that I am going
>to have the security of an academic umbrella to pay the bills.
>
There is no sign of decline in the software market. Gnu software,
its compilers, utilities etc. are above the fray. Perhaps one or
two companies are actually threatened by Gnu, like Mark Williams' unix
utils for DOs or OS/2, but enough people want glitzy packaging and support,
so they will do OK.
>
>Hey -- if you want to discuss any of the points above, just mail me. Flames are
>not allowed -- I feel quite seriously about this issue, and am willing to take
>all callers in turn.
>

I think you are unfairly bashing Gnu. Their software isn't competing with 
the large commodity software market, and it isn't competing with the
custom, one time project market either.

>Cheers,
>
>John
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>John Drexler			'Gentelmen-- you can't fight in here....	
>tyrell@mermaid.micro.umn.edu	 This is the WAR ROOM! ' -- Peter Sellers
>CSci Undergrad, University of Minnesota
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


-- 
__________________________________________________________________________
 John Paul Morrison                     |  
 University of British Columbia, Canada |  
 Electrical Engineering                 |   .sig file without a cause
 jmorriso@ee.ubc.ca              VE7JPM |  
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Newsgroups: gnu.misc.discuss,talk.philosophy.misc,alt.usage.english,alt.society.anarchy