[REBOL] Re: It's NOT Free.. (was) Re: Re: The future of Rebol - achieving crit
From: pa:russo:perd at: 22-May-2001 11:35
Carl, Holger thanks for the answers.
During my sleeptime this thread grew a lot and now it's my time to
increment it again.
Some sparse thought:
1. I agree that if I use REBOL to make a profit it is correct than I
have to pay something to REBOL Tech.
2. There are too many gray areas between your examples. The previous
statement "For commercial use contact us" without a definite pricing
seemed correct to me. I interpreted it as "if you want to make money
leveraging on REBOL features, let's talk and we'll find together a
license agreement tailored on your needs". And it was a clear message
from a young enterprise which needs to gain acceptance for his
products. REBOL Consulting seemed a way to build revenue offering
added value services on REBOL platform.
Now I read a pricing absolutely reasonable in some context and
totally absurd in some other. For example, if I remember well,
/Runtime license started at a $1 pricing for each CPU, discounts on
volumes. So I can encapsulate and distribute my /core scripts at $1
each copy, but if I want to distribute the same scripts together with
/Core I have to pay $79 for each copy. I expect the same situation to
happen with /View/Runtime. Will Desktop justify a 99 times higher
fee? Or will we have a $99 /View/Runtime fee?
Again,if I want to develop and sell my faboulous killer application,
when I read a license fee of $99 per CPU, I think this is a
development tool targeted at products with a street price of at the
very least $400 per copy.
Surely these are silly doubts, easily explained by you, but... how
many people will stop to ask? Is it a correct marketing practice to
ingenerate doubts about your products?
3. LDC competes directly with the widely accepted browser-centric
model. Browsers are free. /View's Desktop has to be free.
How many projects do you know where a non technical manager choose
the latter between "$9,900 for 100 clients" and "a dramatic, but
unquantifiable productivity improvement"? If I try to explain my
reasons, I put myself in the same condition of IBM & friends vs
Microsoft some years ago: good products promoted through technical,
incomprehensible to managers jargon vs "don't worry, pal: it's the
standard, everyone loves it. You will not be obliged to justify
something you don't undestand". Guess who won?
Free /Core and /View with BASIC functionalities give us a shot to
make the platform gain acceptance by examples. "See, it works! It has
just a fraction of the total cost of ownership of Java or ASP based
solutions, your IT folks are happier and you can choose color too!
Now, about that /Command license I need..."
4. I think a added-value services business model could be more
effective for REBOL Tech. If I am in the condition to ponder a $99
per CPU license cost, easily my project needs /Command or /Serve or
at least /PRO. Especially with /Serve, customization and hosting
services can be the economically sensible solution for a wide variety
of small/medium sized projects/firms.
Besides, how do you think you can verify that a Ford department or
whoever else uses /View for profit? It's unfeasible, and
antieconomical, too.
Just my two cents.
Paolo Russo
>Easiest thing to do is to provide examples:
>
>Let's say you work for Ford Motor Company. You come across
>REBOL and discover its obvious benefits. You replace your
>$250,000 help desk or manufacturing test suite with a few
>REBOL scripts. We want you, Ford, to feel obligated to
>pay something. Don't worry, the Ford management is quite
>happy paying for such things. They know good things are
>not free.
>
>If you are Joe User and you want to use REBOL to enable
>others to collaborate with you on building a shared
>collection of interactive astronomy charts, there is no
>charge. You know that good things are free.
>
>Quite simply, we want the world to enjoy the benefits
>of REBOL. But, if you're a business, and the benefit is
>cash or efficiency, then you need to license the software
>that made it possible.
>
>And, we are very open to negotiate on special situations.
>We recognize that there are many edge cases. Just contact
>us.
>
>-Carl Sassenrath
>REBOL Technologies
>
>At 5/21/01 09:56 PM +0200, you wrote:
>>> > > > > The basics (/Core and /View) ARE free.
>>>>
>>>> They are free only on personal, non profit use..
>>>>
>>>> See http://www.rebol.com/products.html
>>>> Rebol/view "Price: Free for non-commercial use. Commercial licenses are
>>>$99
>>>> per CPU. "
>>>> Rebol/core "Price: Free for non-commercial use. Commercial licenses are
>>>> $79 per CPU."
>>>
>>>Hmm, what a price - one solution is - use it on your server then and let
>>>your client run one copy, installed on server. Now I at least know, what's
>>>the Commercial fee ...
>>>
>>>.. but ... I remember Dan stating, that everything is negotiable - if you
>>>don't like conditions set generally, negotiate your situation and private
>>>licencing scheme. I think RT is open to negotiate ... I hope so, as I will
>>>need it :-)
>>>
>>>-pekr-
>>
>>... but... being Dan the kind person he is... he could explain us
>>all what Rebol Tech means for "commercial license" exactly, before
>>we start the usual infinite thread about the beauty of open-source
>>and/or grim prevision about REBOL future and/or... well, you know
>>it ;-)
>>
>>While the business model for /Pro, /Command, /Runtime and /Express
>>is quite clear, I find that the concept of "commercial use" of
>>/View and /Core is quite foggy and needs to be clarified.
>>
>>Greetings
>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>Paolo Russo
>>[pa--russo--perd--com]
>>_________________
>>PERD s.r.l.
>>Virtual Technologies for Real Solutions
>>http://www.perd.com
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>
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Paolo Russo
[pa--russo--perd--com]
_________________
PERD s.r.l.
Virtual Technologies for Real Solutions
http://www.perd.com
