In this context, it is arguably unethical to sell what is freely available at no cost---and then abdicate on the support.
Flip side: Open Source junkies enjoy the missionary aspects--including helping people. It is this this zeal that enables someone like Cosmi to make money without adding value**. One of my favorite quotes (origin unknown): "The world is being taken over by parasites." In my value system, Cosmi is a parasite in that they simply live off of a system or paradigm without adding value.**
**It is perhaps unfair to say that they add NO value. Someone may well find it worthwhile to order a CD rather than simply download and burn---especially if they have no high-speed access. Most of us, however, are going to be p----- when we find out we could have gotten it free.
Steve Kopischke wrote:
I am squarely in your corner on this. I, too, am becoming annoyed with the "but you *have* to" tone of some of the contrary posts.
Relabeled, repackaged software that has, *as its genesis*, OOo, is *not* OOo. As I indicated in an earlier post, how can we tell what changes have been made in between OOo as downloaded from OO.o and its mutation into whatever has been repackaged? Even if there are *no* changes, how are we to tell?
Platinum Perfect Pro (or anyone else) may be doing nothing wrong - ethically, morally, scripturally, dietetically or otherwise. However, they are on the hook for supporting their product and should not be expecting nor advertising anything else.
If I created and distributed a set of macros for OOo Calc, I would not send users to this list for support. I suspect their reception, if they asked, would be even more one-sided than this discussion. I see little difference between that situation and this.
Our collective, first response to such a request ought to be "have you contacted the vendor?" It should *not* be - "welcome aboard, how can we help?"
There are a couple of posters who advocate helping them anyway. I do not think this is a good idea. It's not that we *can't* help PPP users. How can we be sure our advice is accurate? Besides, if we do, where do we stop? Do we support *anything* that touches OOo? Windows XP? Mac OSX? Linux? What about printers? Mice? Browsers? Wireless keyboards? It's easier to see the dividing line when it is drawn so blatantly far away.
If some still believe they ought to support PPP, go right ahead. We can't stop you, but please don't argue that it is the *right* thing to do. There are those of us who feel there are good reasons to feel otherwise.
In my opinion, if it's not OOo, this list is not the right support medium. I would hate to see the value of this list watered down.
oldgnome
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