pay for Linux apps

[Andrew Webber]

On Fri, 19 Mar 1999 16:02:22 -0800, Steven M. Scotten wrote:

>Do you ever pay for Open Source Software? I have a few times. Gladly
>dropped $50 on Red Hat's dist even though I could download it for free
>and try and figure out how to put it together. I'd say it's cheap at
>twice the price. Lots of other people are *paying for* software even
>though they could theoretically download and compile the same stuff
>themselves.

Another example (and whether it converts to PMMail, who knows?
Probably BoB and Ike know best).

There's a program called ShareTheNet (www.sharethenet.com) that is
in my minimally-knowledgeable way, an implementation of Linux that
does only one thing: IP Masquerading.  It also happens to fit on a
single 3.5" bootable floppy.

The effect is that you get an old clunker (mine's a 386/25, which
is pushing it), stick two network cards in it, and when booted from
that 3.5" floppy, it puts your whole network on the Internet.
Sharing a modem, or in our case, cablemodem.

The potential relevance to the current discussion is that it's
available as a Windows app for U$70 (install it on your Windows
machine, fill in some forms with IP addresses and such, write to a
floppy, and you're done).  The source is also available free.

I know of several knowledgeable people, in some cases, Linux users,
who've gone the $70 route.  As Steve says, time is money, and even
a Linux user would have to invest a certain amount of time to
duplicate this.

And as the other Steve said, with Linux going commercial, new
groups of users will be available.  The trick with that of course,
is whether they'll budge from whatever free email client they get
with their system (a hypothetical Eudora Linux, for example).


andrew
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