Money Talks?

[Jim Nuytens]

On Fri, 08 Oct 1999 21:48:09 -0400 (EDT), Ralph Cohen wrote:

>On Fri, 08 Oct 1999 19:49:34 -0400, n3jja@magpage.com wrote:
>
>>(much to do about nothing snipped)
>>
>>
>>You guys crack me up. $20? You cheap bastards!  :-)
>>
>>How about forking over some real change? Start at $40 and work your way up. Maybe
>>they'll think about it. I'll put up $40, how about you?
>>
>
>Hey, I'm no cheap bastard!  A cheap SOB maybe but *NOT* a cheap
>bastard!  I accept your challenge - after all I own both PMMail/2 and
>PMMail 98 - and raise my pledge to $40.  What the heck, Donald Trump
>will just have to find some way to run his campaign without my $20
>contribution.<g>

Well, Ralph, that's a start. I own only the OS/2 version, but I'm
willing to put up $40 just for that.

I'm constantly amazed at the OS/2 community. They cry & moan about not
having this or that, but (in some cases) won't put their money where
their mouth is. By that I mean that they seem to be under the illusion
that they should pay the same amount for OS/2 programs as Windoze users
do for theirs. That attitude would be fine if the numbers of OS/2 users
where even close to Windoze users. They're not. 

In the marketplace, it's called the numbers game. If you don't have the
numbers for a company to make their profit on volume, then they have to
set the price higher to at least break even. Since I don't know of any
company that can survive on "breaking even", you have to set your price
to make a profit. If that means having to charge $20 more (minimum) for
an equivalent OS/2 program, then that's what has to be done.

It's like the CAD/CAM market. If everyone needs it, the price can be
lowered because you make it up on volume. Since that's not the case,
you pay 100's of dollars (maybe even 1,000's of dollars depending) for
the software. It's really no different than the OS/2 situation. Low
numbers = higher price.

Given the above, the simple question is, "How important is it to you to
keep using OS/2?" If it's very important, then (quite frankly) quit yer
bitchin' and fork it over. The OS/2 ISVs aren't in this for charity
(those that are left, anyway).

It's called truly supporting your platform of choice. If that means
more out of my pocket, then that's ok with me. I understand that I pay
a price for my choice in OS. I don't have a problem with that. It seems
to me that there are more than a few OS/2 users who seem to forget that
, or don't realize that. 

We're not talking about the Linux community here. If free is what you
want, then I suggest you change platforms now. OS/2 ain't a free lunch;
it never was.