@Toaks- yeah, I know it. Gotta understand- I haven't purchased a single piece of software from MS in YEARS now- it may not hurt them singularly, but I'm always looking for ways to roll out *nix boxes at work over Windows, or open source alternatives vs paying MS for anything. That's for various reasons, not the least of which is I always hated writing Windows code, as well as their general business practices.
I've also been using Linux and Solaris going on 'forever' now, and in the case of Linux, since it's userbase wasn't so much larger than the one we have on OS4. I saw first hand as it grew, and what made it successful...which yes, timing was a part of, but it was primarily the community helping the community, in software, in scripts, bug reports, lots of testing, software open sourced, etc etc.
I don't have a problem paying for good software- stuff I've bought in past year or two:
Corel Draw (needed on Windowz unfortunately)
Quickbooks Pro (again, needed for win for business)
a few misc web authoring utils
VMWare workstation/Linux (to run the above in 
WinZip
NDIS windows driver wrapper for linux (pesky laptop)
StarOffice/Linux
OS X 10.3
Soldier of Fortune II/Mac
Amiga Forever 6
WHDLoad
fxImage, fxPaint, etc
IBrowse
Half-Life 2 (DUH )
misc others
Stuff I've 'bought'/donated etc I didn't really 'need'-
AW.net donations
JAmiga donation
Total Amiga sub + back issues
misc open source paypal donations
FireFox donation
BitByBit software
Anyways, not to make the list longer as there's no point really...I pay for stuff that has value/meaning to me, but I guess there's a fine line between a reasonable price for something that also allows/promotes growth of the community, versus what might be seen as 'raping the last few users.'
In the case of IB, I'm hoping they make the 'OE version' for OS4 at least able to open a few tabs, and reg users at least get through 3.0, which I believe is the case. In an ideal world, though, I think the price should go to $40 or so...that would do it's part to promote using the A1/OS4, increase sales, and make some $.
It's also tough to put a 'value' on someone else's work. This becomes more and more of an issue with more and more open source projects. As a paid software developer, I want people to sign million dollar + contracts with my company. As an individual, I don't want to pay $$$$ for something that's inferior to Mozilla/FireFox and Opera, and more $ than either. There's a definite contradiction there, and I don't know what the 'answer' is, other than seeing more companies making more $ on maintenance and support, or services, and specialized software than open source hasn't encroached upon yet. It could be argued that OS4 may not be able to compete as a closed source OS, even with it's niche nature and small footprint...
shrug, I dunno 
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Are we not done with the same silly arguments and flames yet??!
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