A Philosophical Point

[Lynn Fredricks]

> > If they make it free, how would they fund development?
> 
> I don't think that Richmonds point was that Revolution should 
> be opensource or freeware, but that removal of the free 
> "limited version" has turned away many potential future 
> programmers. Not everyone has even a mere $99 for which to 
> experiment and learn using DreamCard.

But their target customer does have $99.

I can tell you from experience that offering a free version does not
necessarily equate to a large paying customer base later. Within the group
that opts to take you up on the free version, there are many who abandon at
various stages, and then there are those who like it but there is some
disqualifier for them to become paying customers (no money, not enough time,
work makes them use product X, etc).

Runtime ran several free offers through various UK magazines wherein you
could pick up Revolution for free (abeit an older version). If that didn't
yield gold then they rightfully may expect that offering a free version
(especially one without some sort of call to action) would provide very
little.

Best regards,

Lynn Fredricks
President
Paradigma Software, Inc