[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
On Sat, 2005-06-04 at 06:53 -0600, Colin Stewart wrote:
I'm quite frankly offended that you would ask for a FREE cd. If you
don't want to pay for it, go download it, and make your own. I don't
know about anybody else here, but I, for one, will NOT send you a free
cd. If you were asked for something for nothing, I'm sure YOU would not
be willing. So why ask the same of somebody else?
To be fair, the guy might not be aware of how these thngs work and
someone might have told him that you can get OOo free from the website
and he ended up on the list. So while I agree with your sentiment that
we ought to encourage people to pay for service, I think we need to be a
bit diplomatic in dealing with newcomers. You don't know that his guy
won't become our most valuable supporter if his first contact with the
community is a good one :-)
Seriously. I doubt Microcreft will promote OOo after hearing from Colin.
As far as the whole "asking something for nothing" thing - that's what
OpenOffice.org and the whole open source movement is all about! Being
offended because someone asked you to burn a CD for free (which takes
all of 3 minutes - not an hour - so that would be $10 per 3 minutes, or
$200 an hour - *HARDLY* a "steal"), is ridiculus. I mean, we're giving
away the software, which took literally *hundreds* if not *thousands* of
man-hours, why shouldn't he expect the CD for free, too?
The hardware for the CD cost all of $0.20 US - $0.33 if you don't shop
around - a dollar at most (if you buy it individually instead of a
multipack). Ok, so at $35 an hour - that's about $0.59 a minute (let's
say $0.60) - so by the time you burn the CD, put it in the case and the
case into the envelope, you've used all of, what, 5 minutes? So that's
$3.00. So you've got $3.20 - $4.00. $4 at most, and then shipping.
That's what, a $1? $3? Sending it to France may cost some cash. But if
we had someone in France do it, it would be cheaper.
So you've got something that, at your quoted price, would be $10 -
(something at actually costs you less than a $1, and less than 5 minutes
of time) - but he's asking for a $10 thing, okay... And how much is the
software worth? Ten more dollars? $20? $300? According to Microsoft,
an office suite is worth $300 - $500. According to Corel, it's
somewhere between $100 - $300. Sun thinks it worth $50 - $80. Okay,
okay, so you get upset because he wants a $10 item from you, (and he
didn't ask *you* specifically - he sent an email to a list that is put
up on a website...) but you completely accept the fact that *you* and
he and everyone else can *FREELY* download and even *SELL* (like you do)
a software product that is worth $50 - $500!?!?!? Okay, that's stupid.
Don't get offended so easily.
BTW, the *software* is what these companies think is so valuable - not
the CD, not the manuals, but the software. As proof, go to any of their
websites and try to download it. They are going to charge you the same
price as they would if you bought it on CD (less shipping, and shipping
is less than $10). Sun will let you download StarOffice for free - but
only if you are a student or teacher. Of course, anyone can download
OOo for free, which is hosted by Sun, so that's not a surprize.
You don't want to send the guy a CD - then don't. But don't get all
bent out of shape about it. He wasn't asking for your kidney, he was
asking for a CD. The website has plastered all over it the word "FREE"
- and then he sees a button for CD - what's he supposed to believe?
And, besides that - he wasn't asking *you* he was asking a website.
-Chad Smith
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