[SciPy-dev] OpenCD

[John Hunter]

>>>>> "Joe" == Joe Cooper <joe at enthought.com> writes:

    Joe> As soon as money changes hands, no matter how cheap we sell
    Joe> those CDs or how largely a "No Warranty and No Support"
    Joe> statement is printed on the label, folks who buy it will
    Joe> start calling us and emailing us directly, asking questions
    Joe> and expecting answers.  And if something doesn't work right
    Joe> someone will want it fixed, NOW!  It sounds ridiculous to
    Joe> most folks (me too), but I've been involved in Open Source
    Joe> software on a lot of fronts and I /know/ it would happen.  In
    Joe> fact, the most demanding users are nearly always the ones
    Joe> who've given the least to a project, in terms of effort or
    Joe> money.  Not that I'm bitter or anything.  ;-)

It doesn't sound ridiculous to me.  In fact I wouldn't be surprised if
you sometimes get a similar reaction from folks you provide the goods
to for free.  End users struggle with things that are obvious to
developers, and in the process can shed light on what is wrong with
the software or documentation.  If it's worth releasing, it's
probably worth supporting.

My experience with enthought python is that it works amazingly well,
presumably because you've configured and tested the hell out of it.
So the support commitment would be manageable, I'm guessing.  Sure
there will always be some crank who'll make your life miserable, but
it might be worth it.

  "the most demanding users are nearly always the ones who've given
   the least to a project" (amen, but not naming any names)

JDH