On Saturday 29 January 2011 16:29:06 Rob Oakes wrote: > On Jan 29, 2011, at 2:20 PM, a.l.e wrote: > > or 20 years ago were vendors providing software and manuals for > > free? > > No, but they did provide manuals and product documentation. I > understand why this is near impossible for open source (and I think > that selling high quality documentation is a perfectly valid > revenue strategy), but when was the last time you saw a paid > application shipped with good quality documentation (that wasn't a > web page)? > > The copy of Microsoft Office 2007 I bought a couple of years ago > includes online help and no manual. Even there, half of the links > are dead or point to 2010 which includes a different way of doing > things. I understand the original posters complaint. > > It's impossible to RTFM when there isn't an FM. > > Cheers, > > Rob > _______________________________________________ > scribus mailing list > scribus at lists.scribus.info > http://lists.scribus.info/mailman/listinfo/scribus
On mainframes the software was rented and the manuals were free. But the rental on the machine, OS and compilers etc. was thousands per month. So we can't compare to those days. When I bought a Windows version of Delphi I got about ten different manuals with it. And I bought about three books besides. Now I run Open Source exclusively. Buying a book now and then is the price I pay. The freebie manuals can be printed out but they are clumsy to use at 8.5 x 11 inches, even in a ring binder. -- John Culleton Create Book Covers with Scribus: http://www.booklocker.com/p/books/4055.html Typesetting and indexing http://wexfordpress.com book sales http://wexfordpress.net Free barcode: http://www.tux.org/~milgram/bookland/
