The collected works of GoebelEtc

I think it is important to understand the reality of doing business in the SGI software marketplace. A company may have customers that number in the single digits, or possibly as many as 4 digits. In either case one has to make money or there will be no products. I have been developing SGI based software for a number of years, and would be thrilled if I ever numbered my customers with two digits. Because my software development is really customized for one or two customers, I have no qualms charging $50,000 for what might cost $19.95 in the peecee marketplace. Any yes I will charge as much as I can get. I do this so that I don't have to break down and get a job with the evil empire (I live in WA state). So I understand perfectly when a small company in the SGI software business with a new product has some pricing ambiguity when they start hearing from hobbyists. It is a difficult problem to price a product such that it can be available to hobbyists and generates revenue from commercial customers.

If one wants to object to the commercial offerings, the only real way to do this is by supporting free software. And when I say support, I mean contributions of money and/or time. In doing this for a platform with a small customer base there is the possibility to discover the commercial offerings are actually a good deal.