[Info-vax] Ask the Wizard archives?

[Dave Froble]

On 5/23/2019 11:59 AM, Jim Causey wrote:
> On Thursday, May 23, 2019 at 8:02:51 AM UTC-7, Tim Sneddon wrote:
>
>> However, what I get from your statement above
>> is that a company should give their information away for free until they
>> are big enough to make their customers pay for it?  That seems like a
>> bit of a ridiculous model.
>
> What I meant, and probably expressed poorly, was that I think *all* tech companies are better served by making documentation available widely and freely, but that I get why they don't. Even though I think Red Hat is making a mistake doing so, there are some advantages in the GNU/Linux ecosystem that make it less risky for them.  Most of the documentation and source access in that ecosystem is not provided by Red Hat, nor is it provided by entities that will start charging for it in the future.
>
>> for free, they are certainly not suddenly going to become a paying
>> customer.
>
> No one "suddenly" becomes a paying customer.  But the vast amount of free documentation on the dominant developer and IT platforms of the eta are not doing anything to hurt their adoption, or the revenue they generate.
>
> That's not to say that open model can work for a small, niche company trying to build a business and make revenue from legacy, niche customers who continue to invest in OpenVMS.  I just strongly believe this "closed docs" story is a mistake.
>
> Time will tell, however.
>

I also read that as a possible issue, but, perhaps we're reading too 
much into a marketing statement that was intended to say "look what else 
we're doing for you".  Sometimes marketing people don't really know what 
they are saying, and then again, sometimes they do.

I will predict that nobody is going to purchase support just for some 
web access.  Ain't gonna happen.

I've said in the past, getting VMS in front of as many people as 
possible is in VSI's best interest, and insuring they easily can get 
information is pretty much the same thing.

-- 
David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
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