From: furballs@sequent.com (Paul Penrod)
Subject: Re: Doug Hamilton responds
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems Inc.
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 93 18:31:25 GMT

In article <1993Jan23.131130.11047@itsmail1.hamilton.edu> jmalloy@itsmail1.hamilton.edu (Joseph T. Malloy) writes:
>In article <C19KK0.DI3@panix.com> os2man@panix.com (Larry Salomon Jr.) writes:
>>In <1993Jan21.152701.4365@itsmail1.hamilton.edu> jmalloy@itsmail1.hamilton.edu (Joseph T. Malloy) writes:
>>
>>>4.  Is it the case that IBM doesn't do similar things?  (I mean, it is
>>>in their own best interest to do so, no?  Come to think of it, wasn't
>>>IBM doing the same sort of thing by paying Borland et al. to write OS/2
>>>apps?)
>>
>>Maybe so, but Borland isn't a one-man company like Hamilton Labs is.
>>
>>Cheers,
>>
>True, and that makes it even more astonishing that IBM, in financial
>trouble, gives millions to large, healthy corporations to induce them to
>write software for their OS!  With a one-man shop, a wrong decision (for
>example, to write OS/2 software :) might put you out of business; a
>Borland or a Lotus or a WordPerfect (to name the three I've heard who
>are benefiting from IBM's largesse) ought to be able to take the
>business risk at its own.  Just my opinion, but if IBM were smart,
>they'd support equally (or more fervently) smaller developers (each of
>which would cost less than subsidizing Borland...) in the "Let a
>thousand programs flow" theory...
>
>jmalloy@hamilton.edu
> 
>
>Q

They do. It's called the Developer's Assistance Program. There's
one catch. You have to be working on a real product to qualify. It
does not matter if it's new or old; just legitimate. BTW Shareware
does qualify under that definition.

BTW, subsidizing Borland, (I have not heard from anyone I know at
Borland or IBM that this has ever been the case), is not such a bad
thing. Consider this. Borland makes the most sought after
C/C++/Pascal development environments. These products help
developers build applications. The more applications built, the
more uses OS/2 can be put to. If I were a betting man, I would
definitely place my money in this corner. As far as Lotus,
WordPerfect are concerned. They are big boys with big wallets. They
can fend for themselves monetarily.

From a business perspective, if IBM invested money in all the small
shop that were developing inovative aplications, it would pay off,
but not in spades. While it's a nice idea, reality is that IBM
would be diluting it's resources to conduct it's own business. When
you have a more structured, open affair, like the DAP, then you can
scatter your shots so to speak, and place resources and information
where it will do the most good and bear fruit with a much higher
rate of success. A good analogy of this is planting seeds. If you
furrow the ground, and plant each seed far enough apart so it has
adequate room to grow, you get a high yield from the number of seeds
planted. Instead if you scatter seeds where ever, you have to
disperse a much higher number of seeds to get the same number of
mature plants, and the yield is substancially lower. Now, which
method makes more sense ?

I understand the Microsoft has been doling out goodies as well,
above and beyond the $69.00 beta CD. I would be willing to bet they
also qualify all those who are receiving monetary and hardware
assistance as well.

...Paul

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            Bureaucracy: noun, plural - Bureaucracies.
         The process of turning energy into solid waste.
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