> What is the big problem with free software development? Keeping the > private cost below the private gain. One way to do that is to get > the software into people's hands as soon as possible, EVEN if it is > buggy, incomplete, poorly documented, etc. Yes, Peter, I realize > that this is offensive to your sense of what constitutes good > software. Actually, that's exactly how I handled Ghostscript in its first 4 years, before it got close to commercial quality, but now people's expectations are higher (I realize, of course, that I had a hand in creating those expectations!), and so are my own quality standards, since Ghostscript is now competing with high-quality, mature interpreters like the Phoenix interpreter and Freedom of the Press. > However, getting software (whether free or proprietary) out to people > very quickly accomplishes two goals: You hear about bugs early, and > of course early bug reports are cheaper to fix than late ones, and > you also get product feedback. The free software advantage is that > you can get bug fixes, not just bug reports, and users can improve > the product themselves. I agree. And my commercial business has been helped immensely by bug fixes and other contributions from users of the free distribution. I do always explain to contributors that they are making a free gift of their work to a commercial enterprise, but almost everyone is willing to do this, because they know they will continue to have access to the copylefted distribution, and because they know that the existence of the commercial enterprise has a great deal to do with the continued development of Ghostscript. (In one case, the contributor insisted on copyleft-only distribution, so I don't include that code in the commercial version.) And of course I'm happy to let people know about others' free products built on top of Ghostscript, like the 3 previewers (ghostview and GSpreview for X Windows, and the forthcoming gsview for MS Windows). L. Peter Deutsch :: Aladdin Enterprises :: P.O. box 60264, Palo Alto, CA 94306 ghost@aladdin.com, ...decwrl!aladdin!ghost ; voice 415-322-0103 ; fax 322-1734 "Implementation is the sincerest form of flattery."