Author: rtdos (bb-e00.state.wy.us)
Date: 10-30-2002 00:32
WARNING: I have also posted this in my yahoo groups but I thought this was strong enough a message for other atari communities as well.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rtdos
Does anyone really make any money (besides enough to buy a family
meal at the local five and diner) off Atari shareware anymore or are
we killing the Atari community here by not releasing some stuff as
freeware (but not PD) ?
Would open source (maybe or maybe NOT GPL or some other license) help
the Atari community ?
Those who no longer write software programs for the Atari, do we
petition them to release their products to the Atari community as
freeware so that they can still be enjoyed or used by the rest of the
Atari users ? How ?
Do we write programs for the Atari because we love to program, we
love Atari's, we still care about the Atari community as a whole, or
to make a quick buck to take to the local McDonald's and buy a Happy
Meal?
What happens to these progams after we die ? DO we release them to
the Atari community or do we see the Atari community going the way of
Atari Corp?
I, myself, have no problem with shareware. To me, it helps support
the time and effort a lone programmer has taken in developing the
program (versus the teams of programmers who slave for corporate
software companies like Microsoft & Adobe). But I plan on releasing
rtdos as freeware / open source in an effort to help the Atari
community and because I love my Atari & love to program my Atari.
However, that is my opinion. Everyone has differing views on
shareware. No problem here.
I remember when I first got my 800XL & 1050 disk drive (1984). Boy
was I in heaven. I was up for nearly 72 hours straight just playing
with it, experimenting with it. Damn it was fun, wasn't it ? When
you first took your Atari out of the box and plugged it in ? It's a
sense of euphoria that you can't describe and that even can't be
repeated with today's computers. Hence, another reason I am creating
rtdos for the pc / intel platform. (although I would like to see it
converted over to the Alpha RISC processors)
Since then, my collection has included nearly every eight bit
totalling about 3 dozen complete atari systems (with drives and / or
printer or printer interfaces per system) and TONS of original
software as well as Atari Pong systems (pre-2600VCS) and just about
every model of the Atari 2600 and including a few Atari 5200 & 7800
systems.
Unfortunately, I cannot hook up a single system as I do not have the
room. Yet, another reason I'm working on rtdos. Now a days I am
confined to running my Atari software on emulators (not my original
collection but what I can download).
Lately, I resorted to purchasing an 80486 laptop (75MHz 8 Meg RAM 500
Meg HD) off ebay, installing MSDOS 6.22 (but stripping it down the
the bare minimum) and the last free version of XFORMER for DOS. I
use Atari800Win Plus on my Dell desktop at home. The laptop gives me
a small sense of using a real Atari, sorta, but when you are addicted
to your Atari you gotta do what ya gotta do, right ? :o)
I installed as much Atari stuff on the latop that I could fit. Now I
spend less time on my desktop and most of my time on using my
latop. :o)
Later I'll post a follow about using the latop as my Atari
replacement if you are interested.
Back to the original story, would open source (maybe or maybe NOT GPL
or some other license) help the Atari community ? Why should we tell
others about our programming accomplishments if we are not willing to
share them ? If we are not going to continue supporting a product
(i.e., updates, upgrades, patches, new versions) shouldn't we release
it as freeware (not necessarily PD) ?
What are the merits of keeping any eight bit software as shareware
and not releasing it as freeware? Like I said, your opinions on
shareware will vary and if it is your product it is your decision,
but rtdos is and will always be freeware / open source.
I'm developing rtdos as freeware / open source, not just to benefit
the Atari community (or even the other eight bit communities) but
that so the Atari community as a whole can aid in its development and
not limited to a few "elite" programmers as some Atari programs have
been.
I can be an ass here and say that if you don't agree with my views on
Shareware vs. Freeware then don't bother using rtdos and don't bother
contacting me aboutit. But I won't. :o)
Because that is not what this community is about. Never has been.
How many Atari software authors quit writing programs for the Atari,
not due to the pirates (have some have claimed) but to the child like
actions of some? Are we gonna let those few destroy this community?
I hope not. rtdos, I hope, will be a small, but much needed and
effective solution. Hopefully, once rtdos is released, other
solutions will follow.
How many Atari users gave up their classic systems due to lack of
support from this community (rather than lack of support from the
corporate culture) ? Are we killing the Atari community by holding
onto the shareware concept rather than the freeware concept (but not
PD) ? Again, I hope rtdos will help play a major part in the
solution.
Opinions ?
|
shareware vs. freeware (pros and cons)