>>Im with Evan on this one.
>>The percentage of people who actually use the service will be much less then the people that have taken all your code for free.
>>You have to remember at the moment, people that use things like Linux, are quite knowledgable with their computers, and if something does go wrong, just buzz to the nearest Linux message board. They have no need for paid service/help...
>
>Evan, Chris,
>
>Like you said, people who use things like Linux knows their way around computers, and are usually capable of helping themselves.
>
>But what happens when an "ordinary" user gets a problem with it's computer (or Windows, or any software)? He gets someone who can help him/her, and sometimes pay for that. There are training classes both for Windows and Linux. Companies will be willing to pay to have people work on their Linux boxes, just like they are paying people to work on their Windows boxes. (I'm taking the Linux/Windows example here, but it applies to other software too.)
>
>Now if we can just get the manager to forget the myth that "free" means "worthless", we might actually get somewhere.

Think about this: How far would Visual FoxPro have gotten without UT and the other VFP developer 'forums' and mags? You use propriatary code, so you can't read the source and fix the problems and, since you don't have access to the VFP source, you're not even sure the problem is in VFP and not in how you are trying to use it. You ask for help from this group, or from a mag. The help has to be timely because you are setting at the clients workstation and you need a solution NOW!

Here is the question: How many of you developers have paid for or would pay for day to day help on a per question basis? You pay for UT. You pay to attend VFP classes/seminars. But none of you have paid anyone else on this forum for the solution they gave you when you had a problem. A solution which they may have obtained from someone else, who got it from someone else, who knew the coder at MS who did the work, who supplied the answer. So, why isn't anyone complaining about the revenue lost by a VFP support industry that could exist were UT not here?