Vote to disable password protection for revMedia 4 stacks

[Randall Reetz]

I echo francios' sentiment.  Lock-in happens only after viral adoption.  There are of course revenue models other than retail purchase of tool license.  It would be entirely possible to give the product away, and charge only a percentage of a user's income as a result of said tool.  There are tracking and enforcement issues with such a model, but good will and easy uptake by potential paying customers becomes more benevolent and reasonable.  Trust is a valid way to approach one's customers.  When I was in university, there was a bookshop in the local town without employees.  Just a box at the front door.  If you found a book you wanted, you wrote the name of the book on an envelope, put cash in that envelope, and dropped it into the slot on the top of the box as you left.  They said these was far less than theft in other book stores.  People like to be trusted.

randall  



-----Original Message-----
From: François Chaplais <francois.chaplais at mines-paristech.fr>
Sent: Sunday, August 23, 2009 8:29 AM
To: How to use Revolution <use-revolution at lists.runrev.com>
Subject: Re: Vote to disable password protection for revMedia 4 stacks


Le 23 août 09 à 06:34, Sivakatirswami a écrit :

> capellan wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> This is an enhancement request for revMedia 4.
>> filled in Report # 8234.
>>
>> Given that revMedia 4 will be free, the option to
>> password protect your scripts should be allowed only
>> in Studio and Enterprise versions of Rev, just like
>> the options to use encryption, Business databases
>> and SSL.
>>
>>
>>
>
> Can you provide more compelling reasons for disabling password  
> protection?
> (aside from compelling users to move to a paid version)
>
> I'm more interested that revMedia "take off"
> in the viral sense of being widely used, RunRev RevTalk
> brand becomes as sweet and common as honey in your lemonade.
>
> The question of whether disabling protection enhances
> or dampens the "jet fuel" that could push RevMedia to
> a wider audience needs to be answered.
>
> in the old hypercard days, could you protect stacks? I can't  
> remember, it's been so long....

Hypercard was free (but without standalone capability) because that  
was a requirement by Bill Atkinson. Password protection was the only  
way to do business with HC in these days. Then (I do not remember in  
which order) standalones were possible and the IDE was not free  
anymore. However there was still a free player.

I think the defeat of Hypercard lied in its inability to compile for  
the PC, which was itself due to the particular way it was implemented  
by Atkinson. Remember that, at that times, MS windows was unusable.  
Making HC a non free developing environment killed the grass root  
enthusiasm for HC.
>
> Did this prevent or enhance Hypercard's popularity?
> 1) Young people probably won't care, even if they can protect there
> stuff, they may choose to let others see  their scripts.
>
> 2) teachers will,  as pointed out
>
> 3) anyone doing a lo-level business app most certainly (who has  
> plenty $ to upgrade)...
>
> in the "space in time" between when the business hacker uses the  
> product
> until when he actually pays for the upgrade, if he cannot protect  
> the stack, it could
> make it virtually an unusable option.
>
>
<snip>

I think the free revMedia should not be over crippled. Adoption by  
hobbyists is important to make the environment popular. By hobbyist I  
mean people which will make a limited but happy use of rev but would  
have never considered buying the product in the first place. I add  
that a one month demo is not enough for a person who has a non IT full  
time work to get acquainted with a programming environment.

RunRev can cripple the free version later; this always possible. But  
give the baby a chance before.

François
	a hobbyist with just enough money and interest to pay for a studio  
edition.



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