>pgegen at DawnTreader.bio.ukans.edu (Peter Gegenheimer) wrote:
>>>WHY DO PEOPLE WANT SUPERB, FEATURE-RICH SOFTWARE BUT DON'T EXPECT TO PAY FOR
>>IT???
>
Ok, that's a good question ..... Money problem I think ....
But there are several things programmers should consider ....
There are several good shareware programs out there in any field ....
I don't think I need to remind you how many megabites of windows or mac
or unix or dos programs people wrote, and also for molecular biology I
can use several good FREE or shareware programs that help me in my work
.. What I don't have yet is a simple program that help me drawing
plasmids for presentation or pubblications ... I'm not looking for a big
program that allow me to handle ANY kind of sequence or piece of DNA or
protein and so on ... I already pay an annual fee to use GCG and that's
enough for my budget .... I think a lot of people out there is not
looking for a program that draw a plasmid from a sequence (using may
be one of those (in my opinion) TERRIBLE programs that require a key in
the parallel port to works, making impossible keep a copy of the program
in my notebook. ( I pay for GCG, but I can connect to my GCG from
everywhere in the world via internet, I'm not forced to use it only from
the computer I have in the lab)
So far I'm using HG for Windows, but I have to draw a circle, draw some
arcs and so on ... pretty painfull but I don't have anything else .....
I don't think big groups like NCBI or EMBL or some computing groups
wouldn't be able of give us a so simple program .....
>So, if you want someone to creeate this
>great software, remember that they will need to do it full-time, and >they'll need to get paid.
>Ok, but I don't pay for my Netscape client .... That company made a very
smart job giving for free the program to universities and research
centers ... A company could make a good program and sell it to Biotech
companies (usually with less money problems then univerities) and give it
for a nominal fee (or better for free) to people like me ....
and ... let me say .... when I put a sequence in the database ..... I
don't ask for money ..... but I'm working all the day too!
I mean, the scientific comunity is pretty big .. somebody works on DNA,
somebody on protein, somebody on HIV ...... somebody develope software
... All these guys get public money .... Why should I pay if they
develop a program that allow me to simplify my work? (not the business,
the research work) For what I know, I don't have to pay if I use
technology and material patented for some reason till I stay in the
research field ... I don't pay fees when I clone something, even if all
the cloning process have been patented long time ago ......
Please consider in a different way research center and Company ......
Several programmers already consider it, but none of them think (or have
time to spend) about a very simple plasmid drawing program for windows
platform ....
Also a restriction site analysis program would be VERY nice :-)
Just my tought ...
Massimo delledonne
=========================================================================
=========
Massimo Delledonne, PhD
permanent address: Istituto di Genetica Vegetale
Universita' Cattolica S.Cuore, 29100 Piacenza ITALY
Ph. (+39) 523-599209 Fax (+39) 523-599283
internet: delle at pc.unicatt.it
PLEASE NOTE:
