Python Popularity: Questions and Comments

[Patrick]

Alex Martelli <aleax at aleax.it> wrote in message
news:a0hi10$o40$1 at serv1.iunet.it...
> "RPM1" <rpm1deletethis at frontiernet.net> wrote in message
> news:u2nk47nvtu000c at corp.supernews.com...
>     ...
> > "full technical support"

> Firms like ActiveState (www.activestate.com) will typically be
> overjoyed to sell you "full technical support" for Python on
> the platforms they support.  See, for example:
> http://www.activestate.com/Products/Enterprise_Solutions/Python.plex
> for quite a few commercial offerings by ActiveState of Python
> *Support* products/services, specifically.  I'm sure many other
> purveyors of such products and services exist, and I hope relevant
> URL's will be posted on this thread.
>
> When you can get somebody to put this sort of thing in writing,
> or say it in front of enough witnesses that they can't later
> easily backtrack -- so that they've basically admitted that
> if "there's support" then they HAVE to look at Python in depth --
> you may then follow up by contacting the *SALES* organizations
> of such suppliers as ActiveState.  Forget marketing: you need
> hungry, aggressive *SALESPEOPLE* to ram change down the throat
> of some organization that's clutching at straws to resist change.
>

I'll keep this in mind.

>
> > "customers won't pay for something made with freeware."
>
> I wear Mephisto shoes, but I'm not going to claim that "customers
> won't pay for software developed by somebody wearing Nike shoes".
>
> As a non-sequitur, though, it's roughly on a par with this quote.
>
> How will the customers know, and why should they care, what
> brand of shoes (if any) the developers choose to wear?
>
> How will the customers know, and why should they care, if (e.g)
> your C++ sources were finally compiled/linked with free products
> such as gcc, or for-pay ones such as commercial compilers?  The
> same, obviously, goes for Python -- how will the customers know,
> and why should they care, what kind of support contract YOU have
> with ActiveState or other suppliers, if any?
>

They DO ask what compilers and linkers we use!  They even
make suggestions!  We make very customized software.
Some customers write parts of their own code through
'user exits'.