Ground Control to Revolution

[Scott Kane]

From: "Peter Alcibiades" <palcibiades-first at yahoo.co.uk>

> This attitude worries me more than anything that has come out of the Rev 
> community since I started with Rev.   People really do not seem to 
> understand
> what the nature of the open source competition is.  Its baffling, this 
> degree of ignorance, and its deeply worrying.  The competition that will 
> destroy
> your product is the competition whose existence you spend your whole time 
> denying and refusing to look at.

But I don't deny it and certainly do look at it.  Being pro commercial 
software is hardly worrying, problematic or anything else.  It certainly has 
no negative conentation in regards to Rev, RR or this list.  If you want to 
write software with no renumeration them please be my guest.  All I ask is 
that you don't try to make it compulsory or insist that others make their 
software available with zero renumeration just because you believe that 
should be the way of the world.

> Lets say that things carry on with Rev as they are now, for Linux users, 
> into December of this year, or six more months.

I have no problems with Rev updating the Linux engine.  Indeed I fully 
support Rev updating the Linux engine.  Should it be free?  I don't think so 
and I support RR if they choose not to make it so.  If RR decide to make it 
free - well that's their affair.  All I maintain is that software is a 
consumer product.  If a company is to eat beyond visiting the local charity 
for a bowl of soup and a slice of bread then they are darn well going to 
have to sell it for money and not goodwill because some people feel software 
should be free.

> Meanwhile, Python (and all the other open source alternatives) will be 
> moving on.  Python is and will remain professionally documented, with half 
> a dozen
> excellent tutorial and reference texts, electronic and paper.  Hetland's 
> book, for instance, is what Dan Shafer's book should have become had it 
> gone
> to a second edition.  Its one of many.

I'm yet to find one major commercial product written in Python.  I suppose 
they exist, but as I say, I've not run into one yet. I suspect having said 
that I shall be given a list. <g>   AFA the actual coding in Python I've not 
tried it and presently have no need to do so.

> I really like Rev, I like the Hypercard roots, the people, the community, 
> the ease of learning, the flexibility and speed of getting stuff done in 
> it.  I'm
> not advocating moving to Python and don't want to. Python is a lot harder 
> to learn, maybe also to use.  But my goodness people, wake up and look at 
> what
> is going on in the world outside.  It is not the way you think it is.  You 
> are becoming your own worst enemies by burying your heads in the sand.

Burying your head in the sand?  I could put a really awful laugh in here - 
but I won't because I believe you are genuine.  Look.  Free can not make the 
world go round.  It didn't work for Marx, it didn't work for Lenon.  There 
are other examples.  However there are not any strong examples of where it 
has worked.  People have to eat - even Open Source officiandos must eat 
something and somebody has got to pay for that stuff they are eating. 
Whether it is customers, support contracts (which are not even likely to be 
paid by most consumers and small business') or the government in handouts to 
the unemployed.

> Still think OSS is all half baked, phase of the moon stuff?  Sitting at my 
> Debian desktop, shaking my head in disbelief.  Where do these ideas come 
> from?

Yes.  Absolutely.  Because Joe and Jill Six-pack can't use your lovely (and 
I'm sure it is exactly that) Debian desktop.  All those wonderful internet 
tools that are "free" are not really free.  People take that code, compile 
it and sell it to us as "Web Hosting".  Sure - I can setup those tools on my 
own box and connect to the big wide world but that opens a whole new kettle 
of fish (security, time to keep it secure etc - which BTW are all cost 
factors).  Now - back to Debian (or any *Nix flavour) there simply are not 
enough applications to draw most people in easily.  Will there be in the 
future?  No I don't think so.  Because there's no money in it.  Linux users 
don't want to pay for software (or support contracts).  They want it free. 
Zero interest for anybody interested in making a living with software.  In 
addition *nix has no marketing clout.  Microsoft and Apple can afford 
massive add campaigns in multiple media.  *nix can not.  IBM tried to take 
on Microsoft with OS2 (a beautiful multi-tasking desktop system that in many 
ways is still superior to Windows) and failed because of marketing and 
acceptance.  The *nix fraternity may be growing - but are they gaining 
traction?  No.  Windows and Mac still dominate after almost 10 years of 
having people tell me I didn't know what I was talking about.  When Borland 
held Borcon in Sydney I told David Intersimone - over dinner - that Kylix 
would die because *nix programmers would not support it.  I suggested a 
lower price tag ($69 to be precise) in an attempt to mitigate the flop.  I 
was told I was wrong - but now Kylix is as dead as a doornail.  Those 
programmers that are my contempories in other software organizations 
attempted to work with *nix.  It was open source and free or nick off.  So 
they did exactly that.

Half-baked?  Yep.  Most of the software on SourceForge is half baked.  Phase 
of the moon?  Well maybe they aren't affected by that - dunno - but 
something makes all those efforts begin and end with, shall we say, little 
to show for themselves.  Sure - there is commercial vapourware - one only 
has to consider what Vista was supposed to be and what it is.  But that 
won't stop it (or a successor because I suspect Vista is as big a goof as 
Millennium was) and it shall continue complete with commercial companies 
offering commercial software.  If "free" worked industry would have been 
doing it centuries ago.  But it's never worked because there is nothing in 
it to live on.  Maybe.....   when they start giving out free computers to go 
with the free OS' and their accompanying hordes of "free software" it may 
have a chance.  But I suspect hell will freeze over before Dell, IBM, Apple 
etc start handing out those to us all.

Scott Kane