In <997a524e0811101043u13b3247fxc636096c7a74c8a4 at mail.gmail.com> "Ralph Mitchell" <ralphmitchell at gmail.com> writes:
I think there's a certain amount of "who can we sue if it breaks" mentality. If a company contracts to pay $$$$ for a product, that gives them a big stick to beat the supplier with in the event that something goes wrong, to either fix the product or get their money back. If the product is free, worked on by a couple of guys in their spare time, there's no contract and no comeback if it breaks.
Hey, I'll give people their money back if they're not satisfied! All $0.00 of it!
The funny thing about this argument is
a) all software licenses I've seen have enough disclaimers in them that any lawyer would have no problem fending off a lawsuit. So the "we'll sue you if this doesn't get fixed" threat is meaningless. (Can anyone point to a succesful lawsuit where a software vendor had to pay for deficiencies in their product? I don't know of any).
b) the free software either pays off immediately, or it is junked. If it pays off you win; if not, you've lost nothing but a couple of days work by your techs - no big loss.
The economics seem simple enough to me. Maybe that's why I'm a techie, not a manager :-)
Regards, Henrik