Re: Need help with a decision!

From: OCID (sanjaypande_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 05/15/04 

Date: 15 May 2004 01:03:35 -0700

kaz@ashi.footprints.net (Kaz Kylheku) wrote in message news:<cf333042.0405141022.78f1544e@posting.google.com>...
> sanjaypande@yahoo.com (OCID) wrote in message news:<4414486f.0405130801.287e5f3e@posting.google.com>...
> > only find Xanalys Lispworks to be a choice we like to make. A quote
> > from Xanalys just blew us away in terms of how ignorant companies are
> > to world markets and currency differences.
>
> You are confusing self-interest with ignorance. Xanalys is not a
> charity. It's a company that needs to make a profit, in the context
> and terms of the economy in which it operates.
>
> It's not Xanalys' fault that some countries are run to the ground by
> murderers and thieves, and fail to produce anything that the rest of
> the world wants, and consequently have a worthless currency.

I am the original poster and felt the need to respond to this.
Firstly, I know that Xanalys is a business and I have nothing against
their "self interest" or their making money. They currently do not
have a market in my country so expanding here IS in their interest,
but, of course that is their prerogative. As far as making money, they
can always offer additional restrictions of a license based on locale.
Its not that hard to do. If they offer me a stripped down license that
only allows me to sell in my country, that is something that should be
attractive to all parties, us - because we get a very good development
environment at a reasonable price, our customer who get a product at a
reasonable price as well as Xanalys who get a chance to expand into
another country. Software really does not cost much to distribute,
especially once it has been created. Since they are already making
profits in their current markets, expanding to a different country
will only help increase that. Their likeliness of making even one sale
here depends on their pricing here ... not a standard pricing for the
whole world. Creating a restrictive license will help stop a price
dilution if they fear that.

Also every country that has a weaker or lower currency or where cost
of living is much lower is not necessarily run by murderers and
thieves. Just fyi, my country is the worlds largest democracy and the
currency has been strong against the dollar. However because of the
disparity in cost of living a product at an "American" price may not
be attractive to me mainly because I am not selling in the "American"
market. It is as simple as that.

I have lived and worked in the US and could afford to pay for an
Xanalys license while I was there just from a fraction of a months
pay, whereas it is a different scenario after moving here. It is no
different than moving from a place like Indiana to California or New
York where salaries almost double.

If and when we want to sell to the "international" market, especially
the US, we would be very happy to buy the licenses at the listed
prices. Hence, I still maintain my point that the company is ignorant.
Once again, because it is their decision to do so, I am looking for
alternatives that we can afford. For development on the server side we
find the free/open source flavours adequate for our needs, whereas, we
have issues on the client side with non-standard or no GUI libraries,
non-standard database access libraries etc, for which we currently
find PLT-Scheme the best option despite our strong preference for CL
as a language.

However, I do live in a free country where everyone is entitled to an
opinion and I thank everyone who has provided one. It is very helpful.

Take Care