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People still pay for development tools. Lots of people paid for IntelliJ IDEA even with Eclipse around. I think a free product have to be utterly superior to a
by kiba 16y ago
People still pay for development tools. Lots of people paid for IntelliJ IDEA even with Eclipse around.
I think a free product have to be utterly superior to a paid product in order to displace commercial products.
The cost of replication or the lack of substitutes is irrelevant ... people don't use GIMP over Photoshop because a Photoshop substitute is fucking hard to develop ... it took 22 years to reach its current state.
I am not parsing this statement. Do you mean that because it take 22 years to develop Photoshop, that it is impossible for GIMP to be good enough to be a substitute good thus eventually displacing it?
- pchristensen 16y ago"I think a free product have to be utterly superior to a paid product in order to displace commercial products." In order to completely displace commercial products, yes. But for any reasonably complex or powerful product, there's a market of customers that are overserved by it and would pay less for less if they could. This is usually handled by product segmentation - think of options in cars. If you don't need the extra power, go for the 4-cylinder instead of the V-6. If cash is more important than comfort, skip the leather seats. If you need the fastest, most luxurious car and money isn't an option, check every box on the list.