[hobbit] Xymon Logo ?

[Henrik Størner]

In <997a524e0811101043u13b3247fxc636096c7a74c8a4 at mail.gmail.com> "Ralph Mitchell" <ralphmitchell at gmail.com> writes:

>I think there's a certain amount of "who can we sue if it breaks"
>mentality.  If a company contracts to pay $$$$ for a product, that gives
>them a big stick to beat the supplier with in the event that something goes
>wrong, to either fix the product or get their money back.  If the product is
>free, worked on by a couple of guys in their spare time, there's no contract
>and no comeback if it breaks.


Hey, I'll give people their money back if they're not satisfied! All
$0.00 of it!


The funny thing about this argument is

a) all software licenses I've seen have enough disclaimers in them that
   any lawyer would have no problem fending off a lawsuit. So the
   "we'll sue you if this doesn't get fixed" threat is meaningless.
   (Can anyone point to a succesful lawsuit where a software vendor
   had to pay for deficiencies in their product? I don't know of any).

b) the free software either pays off immediately, or it is junked. If
   it pays off you win; if not, you've lost nothing but a couple of 
   days work by your techs - no big loss.


The economics seem simple enough to me. Maybe that's why I'm a techie, not
a manager :-)


Regards,
Henrik