Mail clients in Linux

[Steve Lamb]

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On Fri, 19 Mar 1999 14:50:04 -0800, Steve Scotten wrote:

>There's no reason you can't *sell* Open Source software. Even the rabid
>folks (Stallman) endorse such a practice.

    However the GPL doesn't allow for exhorbant amounts and once the source
is out, that is it.

>There's no reason that PMMail wouldn't sell as closed, proprietary software.

    But there are quite a few good reasons why it won't sell *as well* as
Souhtsoft wants.  I'll be the first to admit.  Of course, having immersed
myself in the Debian distribution may have tainted my perspective of the
matter.

>You do Linux users around the world a disservice by painting them (us) as a
>bunch of skinflints who refuse to pay for products. And there are at least a
>hundred times as many Linux users as OS/2 users. (no I don't have numbers to
>back that up, but it's a conservative estimate IMO)

    I hate to say it, but that really isn't that far off the mark.  PMMail
is one of the few programs I would pay for but only because there isn't
something comparable on Linux...  *yet*.  PMMail98, Quicken98....  Uhm...
Uhm....  and games (they don't count) are about all that is left that is
proprietary even on my Windows box.

    But the thing is Linux is about to hit the commercial world and they
would pay for something of PMMail's caliber.  So it is a 50/50 bet, really.
Will Linux make it on the commercial desktop?  If Southsoft thinks so, go
for it.  If not, don't.  As much as I'd love to see PMMail on Linux, I don't
think it will be worth their time to do it.


- --
         Steve C. Lamb         | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
         ICQ: 5107343          | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
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