Tim Cutts wrote:
>> In article <01bcd759$9692de40$b355adce at CRC3.concentric.net>,
> Ed Williams <elwm at concentric.net> wrote:
> >How do you get around "Timed expired software."?
>> Simple. YOU GO AND BUY THE FULL VERSION. Programmers spend a lot of
> time and money creating software for you. Where are they going to get
> that money and time from if you won't pay them for what they have
> produced?
Very true, except that in the field of molecular biology programs cost
as much as a used car (just look at the price of DNASTAR and PC-GENE,
both of which, in my opinion, are poor products for the price of
admission). I personally agree with you, but I don't think you quite
understand the problem that some people in academia face (i.e. the
graduate students who need the software but scrape by on financial aid
and jobs on the side).
I do not advocate piracy of software; it is the lowest form of stealing.
What I can't understand is the absolute gall it takes to gather a bunch
of freeware and shareware, add a new and supposedly user-friendly face
to it, then charge $3000 for it. That in itself is thievery. It has
now come down to the have and have-nots; those with the funds can get
the trend-cutting software (DNASIS and GeneWorks, from what I have seen,
are two of the best and possibly worth half the expense), and those
without can deal with the freeware as they are (performing a billion
file conversions, usually getting results which aren't very
publication-friendly, etc.). As for me, I'll have to wait until my
department here can pony up the money for yet another version of DNASIS
(and I can't even imagine what the site licensing fee could be on that).
If somebody out there can justify the extreme costs of these programs,
please let me know (email or this NG).
--
C. J. Fields
Graduate Student, Dept. of Biological Sciences
The University of North Texas
Denton, TX
email : cfields at gab.unt.edu
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\oooooooooooooooo////////////////////
"Giving money and power to government is like giving
whiskey and car keys to teenage boys"
-P. J. O'Rourke
////////////////////oooooooooooooooo\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
