Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 12:24:09 -0700 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: Nils Holland <nils@daemon.tisys.org> Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: The road ahead? Message-ID: <3CE40759.7C584101@mindspring.com> References: <20020516004909.A9808@daemon.tisys.org> <20020516151801.A47974@energyhq.homeip.net> <20020516172853.A7750@daemon.tisys.org>
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Nils Holland wrote: > 1) I have often helped people with their computer problems. If their > machine no longer boots, and it turns out that the hard disk has died, I > figure that it'd be a good idea for people not to exchange it themselves. > Someone who knows about such stuff should probably do it, and I don't have > anything against people calling me if they are having such problems. > > *BUT* it occurs now and then that people want me to help them with stupid > stuff. Someone would call me up and say: "I just scanned this image, and > now I cannot change the background color. Could you do this for me?" > > Well, of course I could, but obviously I won't. If people buy computers, I > guess they should at least spend some time getting familiar with the > basics, and reading the fucking manual. This problem, however, could also > be blamed to the software vendors, as they no longer seem to supply real > manuals with their product. The online help, however, is always your friend > ;-) This is all Bob Wallace's fault. Really. Bob Wallace is the original author of "PC-Write". It was the first product his company "Quicksoft" (formed in 1983 after he left a five year stint at Microsoft) shipped. Bob is an interesting fellow; he is often credited with having invented "shareware". Bob was at a convention one time, and I got to see him asked about how shareware selling of software worked. He corrected his interviewer: "Software is all up here, it's not real;" he said, making hand motions around his temples, "what I sell is manuals". PC-Write was a pain to use. You could get minimal results out of it easily, but to get truly great results, you had to have the manual. The manual cost $75, and with it you got a disk with the most recent version of the software, and would be sent another disk with the next major release, when that happened. The difficulty involved in using the product without a manual was, in effect, a revenue protection strategy. In other words, the software was copy-protected, using obfuscation, rather than technical means. PC-Write was popular; your first "hit" was "free". At one point in time, it was the most popular word processing program on the PC, until Word Perfect started attacking Bob where he lived, and offered free technical support (PC-Write technical support was conditioned on buying the manual, and was limited in time). A lot of companies started and operated with the idea that the PC-Write software was the epitome of good software; they mimiced it's intentionally opfuscated UI, and other aspects of the software, which was itself cleverly counter-intuitive (so that Bob could sell his manuals). Bad style and practices were therefore enshrined; and none dare criticize them. In fact, we see echos of this most strongly in console based programs... like the FreeBSD installer. All because we are unknowingly creating "copy protected" software, and then not distributing the "keys" of a printed manual and paid technical support. It's really no wonder that most mailing lists are full of people asking "stupid questions" -- they are trying to get around the copy protection that the authors aren't even aware that they've included in their products. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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