Re: NCSA's un-free browser - NOT

Eric W. Sink (eric@spyglass.com)
Fri, 26 Aug 1994 14:58:45 -0600


>What happened to the free-browser/pay-for-editor model? After this, what
>incentive will there be to make the free version of NCSA's
>Mosaic software even comparable to "Enhanced Mosaic"?

Plenty. We're not talking about Growing Mosaic and Stagnant Mosaic. The free
version and the commercial version cater to somewhat different audiences.
Not only will the free version continue to be available, it will
continue to be improved. Also, some improvements from Spyglass will be
worked back into the free version.

The free version will probably always have some features that are
not in the commercial release. The commercial offering must be a LOT
easier to use than the free version, and that means removing or reworking
any feature which is confusing. Things like speech recognition and
other more researchy features will be in the free version first.

There's nothing wrong with the "free-browser/pay-for-editor model". It
will still work if that's the way *you* want it. However, there are lots
of people who do NOT want a free browser, they want a commercially supported
browser. Just because a market exists for a commercial version does not
mean a market no longer exists for the free version.

The free version will continue to be improved for the indefinite future.

--

Eric W. Sink, Software Engineer -- eric@spyglass.com 217-355-6000 ext 237 All opinions expressed are mine, and may not be those of my employer. "If you have 3 SGML experts, then you have 8 opinions of what a DTD is." -TBL, 26 July 1994