6 Sep
2008
6 Sep
'08
6:25 p.m.
It was thus said that the Great Chuck Guzis once stated:
I can't imagine that it's just the music people who are alone in this
respect. While Linux does have some music notation utilities
(Rosegarden, NoteEdit, Lilypond), none of them have the polished
utility of Finale or Sibelius. I suspect that when you get in the
area of $500+ single-user license specialty software, Linux isn't an
option.
It isn't.
A story to somewhat bring this back to topic. Way back in early 1995, I
was hired as a consultant (by some friends) to help port the MajorBBS to
Unix [1][2]. When released, it was only sold for the commerical Unix
systems and they refused to sell a Linux version even though internally, all
primary development was done using Linux [3].
Why?
Because they could sell the Unix version for 10 times the amount of the
MS-DOS version. The people interested in a Linux version was a very small
subset of their customer base, and wouldn't pay more than the MS-DOS price
for the Linux version.
So why not sell the Unix version at the same price as the MS-DOS version?
Because the Unix commercial market wouldn't buy it at that price---it's too
cheap.
Another company I consulted for a few years later had a product they sold
for a variety of platforms, everything from PCs running Windows up to
Stratus mainframes [4]. It was the same code base for everything, yet the
pricing varied widely depending upon the platform. I think it was $1,500
for Windows, $5,000 for Unix, and $50,000 for mainframes. Same code base.
It's all about what the market perceives is the "correct" price for the
software.
-spc (Glad to be working with open source software ... )
[1] http://www.kenmaier.com/gcomm/mbbsunix.htm
I knew Ken and Mahesh, who did the initial
test port of the MajorBBS
[2] I only last two weeks there---too much of a culture
clash and I didn't agree with the coding standards.
[3] Later they gave in to customer demand and sold a Linux
version.
[4] I think that's the right name. I remember a few stories I was told
about their Stratus mainframe they had to help port their software.
Once, they rebooted their Stratus from one operating system to
another, and twenty minutes later a representative from Stratus
called the company asking if they were having problems with the
computer as they noticed an unscheduled power cycle.
Yes, the mainframe had a direct phone line back to Stratus.
Another time a fan unit shows up at the offices unannouned. Upon
investigation, it turns out the Stratus determined the fan was
marginal and ordered a replacement part to be installed.