GNU ZOO REVU

[zben at umcp-cs.UUCP]

eally like his OWN copy of the manual.

 This same argument happened many years ago when paperback books became
technically feasable.  People said the paperback would kill the hardback.
It didn't happen because:

* The hardback is usually marketed 6 months to a year before the paperback.
  If you want it NOW you will have to pay.

* Many people still buy hardbacks because they hold up longer.

 It happened again when the Xerox was invented.  How many people do you
know that own a xeroxed copy of War and Peace?  The books are just too
cheap to waste your time xeroxing.

 This would also have the really nice side effect of introducing an
element of competition into manual writing - the current state of the 
art could sure use it...

 Remember the original software author would have the advantage that
he would not be shooting at a moving target.  If the competition manuals
started to hurt him too much he could always release version ++V of
both the software and manual and have a free six month advantage.

 This is also a solution to complaints "well, they sell it, but they
don't seem to be overly interested in supporting it...".  If there
were some competition here (service contracts?) things might be better.

 Think about it

zben (Ben Cranston)      seismo!umcp-cs!zben      zben at umd2
Computer Science Center University of Maryland