[SciPy-dev] ANN: Enthought Python Distribution - Beta

[John Ollinger]

I absolutely agree with that.  Business are very suspicious of software that
they don't have specific rights to.  If money changes hands, an implied
contract exists even if no explicit contract is executed.  It is also much
easier for an IT manager to justify a low-cost option than a no-cost option
because it is not in the nature of business executives to trust something
that is free.

In fact, the $2000 I mentioned in my email above was forced on the
programmers.  This occurred two years after we left the university, and we
knew the university would take the money anyway, so we tried to give the
rights to the company for free.  They insisted on selling, so I suggested a
price of $1, but they said that wasn't enough.  So I said $2000 and that is
what they paid the university.

John

On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 2:36 PM, Robert Kern <robert.kern at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 2:27 PM, Matthew Brett <matthew.brett at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > >  With the bundle - yes of course.  I mean, if the bundle becomes the
> >  >  defacto standard for deploying python, numpy etc, and the charges
> >  >  worry people, then they may be less likely to try it.  I've no idea
> >  >  whether that will be a big factor - I guess it's difficult to say.
> >
> >  For example - imagine the following scenario.  Someone moderately
> >  junior has just joined a company or government institution.  They
> >  become keen on python, start playing with python, VTK and so on, and
> >  try and persuade others in the company to try it.  If they find they
> >  have to ask the accounts people for money before they install the
> >  bundle, or they have to build it all from scratch, they may not, which
> >  means lost users.
>
> Without EPD, they only have the latter alternative, so I'm not really
> sure how the presence of EPD can harm anything.
>
> Let me be clear on one thing which people may be fearing: we will not
> stop making separate, freely available binary releases of numpy and
> scipy. Nor will we stop anyone else from making such binaries.
>
> We are interested in making money by *adding* services, not holding
> them hostage.
>
> --
> Robert Kern
>
> "I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless
> enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as
> though it had an underlying truth."
>  -- Umberto Eco
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>



-- 
John Ollinger
University of Wisconsin
Waisman Center, T233
1500 Highland Ave
Madison, WI 53711
http://brainimaging.waisman.wisc.edu/~jjo/
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