SW Subscription (was Re: Editor / Formatter) -Reply

[Barbara Lamb blamb@xxxxxxxx]

We at Johns Hopkins University Press concur. Barbara Lamb, managing
editor

>>> R Tennenbaum  07/08/96 01:30pm >>>
On Mon, 08 Jul 1996 11:09:56 +0700 you wrote:

>>Interesting idea. I wonder if enough people would pay to support
>>even that level of service.
>>
>
>  I would. I think "subscribing" to XyWrite's a great idea.
>
>
>Chris Wren
>Madison, Wisconsin
>cgwren@xxxxxxxx
>

Kind of interesting that on the one hand you have someone talking about
free applications, then a few days later we're talking about subscribing
to Xywrite. Personally, I don't see this idea of subscribing to software
having much of a future, and certainly not in this case, where we seem
to be dealing with a company whose dedication to its product seems
suspect at best. The nature of the market dictates a sort of subscription
anyway -- ie, a company brings to market an updated product every
year or so, and we buy it. Or at least, that's how it's supposed to work.

I think we feel a certain amount of sympathy for software developers,
since it's a peculiar characteristic that hardware vendors will always be
in business, while a software developer who puts out the perfect
product is likely to put himself out of business. On the other hand, do
you want to be tied into a company which bloats its application
semi-annually and trades off users' anxiety lest they don't have the latest
and greatest?

Rafe T.