(Oh, good. I get to hassle the competition :-))
>This is very unfair to the author of compress.  It was never intended to

  Well, if you are selling such software to people expecting it to work
  straight off, I guess they'd think *you* were unfair.

>Free software works no worse than commercial software, and I can fix it

  Case by case. Getting GJGPP/DEMACS running well on MSDOS can be
  troublesome at times. Of course, Freeware on *Unix* is a different
  story. The problem is that the mass-market (which is what Mr. Deutsch
  specifically referred to) does not run Unix, does not want to "fix"
  software, and does not want a 70's user interface. They are
  impressed by programs bloated with bells and whistles, and want
  programs that are "simple" to install and use. (Though many DOS
  programs are anything but "simple"; the point is they *sold as* and
  are *looked upon as* simple).

  As such, the needs of these people are not being met well by current
  Freeware. I believe it will change! (but it would be nice to be able
  to make a reasonably living making the changes...)