on "good manners" and profitting from open source.... (was re: [Fwd: Re: (RADIATOR) Adding an attribute "Post Handler"])

[Mariano Absatz]

Hi,

FWIW, and not trying to start a flame war here, I'd like to comment on this 
message.

Brian, 

I didn't read a book on good manners, although I think _I_ am not especially 
bad mannered. I _do_ know a lot about internet mailing lists, especially 
technical support mailing lists. Either for paid, unpaid, open, or close 
source software (and then some...).

I _do_ know quite something about netiquette and e-mail... and know that it 
is considered unpolite (or "bad manners") to send messages to a tech support 
mailing list without browsing the archives before, so as to know the 
standards of interaction in the list.

I've been using Radiator, configuring it for large customers, developing 
systems that use it, and giving support about it for two and a half year. I 
am subscribed to the list since before we bought it, I just searched through 
my radiator list folder and found a couple dozens of messages from Hugh 
asking someone which company had paid for the copy of Radiator, so it's 
customary of the list and, hence, I wouldn't consider it "bad manners".

OTOH, regarding the way in which Radiator is sold, distributed and supported, 
I can only state that I envy OSC for being able to profit (or at least 
survive, I don't know a thing about how healthy the company is) in such a 
clever way from open software, and I envy Hugh and Mike for working there.

Radiator is open source or free source (with free as in freedom, not "for 
$0") since it's distributed with full source code, very well documented and 
the code is quite clean and understandable (I even fiddled with it and 
modified a couple of things, and I'm quite far from being a perl wizard).

The price is quite reasonable and includes perpetual software updates and 
free mailing list support.

The documentation is great and the free (as in "for $0") support customers 
receive on the mailing list is way better than ANY customer support I'v ever 
seen in the industry, paid or unpaid, for paid or unpaid software or 
hadware... go find out how much big companies (Oracle, Informix, Microsoft) 
charge for support contracts, and then (if you have the resources), pay for 
it and see if it is half as good as the mailing list support Hugh and Mike 
provide.

More than once I found a problem on the software, or asked for a feature and 
I had a patch with the bug-fix or the feature in my mailbox in less than a 
day (considering I'm in the other side of the world and Mike and Hugh sleep 
while I work and vice-versa).

First time we bought Radiator, as we had to give personalized 7x24 support to 
a large ISP for it, we bought the unlimited e-mail support contract, just in 
case.

Anyway, for any problem or doubt I had, I started (as usual) with the mailing 
list... the net result was that I never, ever, had to use the paid support, 
since the free support is top noch.

Now, Radiator is distributed with FULL-SOURCE, no encrypted parts (except in 
the "free demo"), no serialization and no shit that would upset a legit 
customer.

Nothing, except legality, ethics and shame, prevents me from downloaded my 
licensed unpersonalized copy and re-sell it, re-distribute it or pirate it in 
any way. Nothing but good faith prevents me from using my 2-7 servers copy in 
2,000 servers.

So what anti-piracy scheme does OSC use? they plain check that the domain for 
the e-mail address of someone asking questions who doesn't seem to be testing 
the free demo, corresponds to one of the copies the sold at one time in the 
past.

If they can't match it, they simply ask the user... let's say Radiator's anti-
piracy mechanism only disables the free e-mail list support. If the automatic 
check fails, you can enable it with a simple mail message (the software 
itself, however, is free from anti-piracy nonsense).



El 24 Jan 2003 a las 5:08, bja at i-55.com escribió:

> Hello Hugh - 
> 
> I will be happy to send you the name of our company, which has
> indeed "purchased this copy of radiator".  Can you please send
> me the name of the registered company who published the book you
> own on manners?  If you can't find it, I'll be happy to send one
> of those too.
> 
> 
> 
> bja
> 
> 
> Brian Acosta
> i-55 internet services

--
Mariano Absatz
El Baby
----------------------------------------------------------
This message transmitted on 100% recycled electrons.


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