Re: Accounts Software (was Re: ChangeFSI on Iyonix)

On 6 Mar 2006, Graeme Wall wrote:
In message <gemini.ivpfkh002h7o80264.spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
VinceH <spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[...]

Once again you avoid the question.

If the question you mean is the one immediately below this
paragraph, then I have done no such thing since you haven't,
AFAICS, asked it until now.

No. it's the one at the top of the page.

Which I've now snipped, so...

----8<----
What is the RISCOS marketplace? An ever decreasing
number of ageing enthusiasts?
----8<----

Could we perhaps rephrase that slightly, first? How about:

What is the RISC OS marketplace? An ever decreasing number of
enthusiasts?

It is a very uncomfortable question that no one wants to answer.

There's nothing uncomfortable at all about it, if it's worded more
sensibly.

Okay, we're all growing older (ie ageing) by the second - but I
think most people would read ageing in that sentence to mean a
bunch of old farts who should or soon will be drawing a pension.
(We have plenty of those, of course... ;-)

Without that poor choice of word on your part, I'm happy to answer
the question - with an answer not entirely unrelated to the one I
gave to this question:

Is the RISCOS market to be forever confined to those who are
alreay using it?

In a broad sense, the answer is yes, IMO. We'll lose a few
users here, and gain a few there, but I think the desktop
market has already diminished much too far for there to be any
realistic hope of it expanding to a great deal more than what
it is, on its own.

So - What is the RISC OS marketplace? An ever decreasing number of
enthusiasts?

The desktop market, IMO, consists mostly of enthusuasts - the
answer to that part is therefore "mostly, yes".

As for "an ever decreasing number", I think the /general/ trend is
in a downward direction, but it's now at a rate so small that it's
meaningless (and may be a more general increase, but still so
small as to be insignificant), and in fact fluctuates slightly,
overall.

(And I think we may have VirtualAcorn to thank for slowing that
rate of shrinkage, TBH.)

[...]

It looks more to me like you were trying to put words in my
mouth - asking if I thought the market consisted of a certain
type of person, then telling me it's what I ("you are all"
presumably includes me, since it was me you were directly
replying to) am assuming.

In that you keep referring to the RISCOS marketplace not being
able to support development of a given software package it looks
as though you are going along with the automatic assumption that
the RISCOS market is fixed. Something you've made explicit
above.

Well, I've used phrases like "in a broad sense" and "more or
less".

What is it you believe makes it an "automatic" assumption?

[...]

And that's just one piece of software.

So how did Steve Jobs do it, he didn't take one look at it and
say too difficult I'll go off and grow roses instead.

What is it that Steve Jobs has done that has any relevance to or
bearing on the RISC OS world?

[...]

No, for very practical reasons, I don't have access to the
technology rights, both hardware and software. What I am
saying is that those who do have them don't appear to be
thinking beyond the current spiral of decay.

That's a feeble excuse - with enough funding behind you,
you'd be able to buy those rights,

Again you are assuming things, what guarantee is there that the
current holders of those rights are willing to sell at a
reasonable cost?

Yes, it is an assumption that for the right price a business,
which has a goal of making a profit, would be willing to sell (or
licence) something it has. I live in a crazy, crazy, mixed up
world.

Or did you intend "reasonable cost" to mean "bloody cheap, to
minimise my investment" ?

and *you* could look "beyond the current spiral of decay". Get
drawing up that business plan and start talking to your bank.
You are, after all, confidant that it can be done.

I never said I was confidant it could be done, merely pointing
out that if it isn't done by someone the platform is doomed.

The problem is, it's a case of "should /have/ been done" - years
ago, when Acorn had all the toys and the market was considerably
bigger than it is now.

[...]

VinceH
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Accounts Software (was Re: ChangeFSI on Iyonix)
    ... number of ageing enthusiasts? ... referring to the 'RISCOS market' as though it was a closed society. ... that the only people who woild be interested are the existing user base. ... Or did you intend "reasonable cost" to mean "bloody cheap, ...
    (comp.sys.acorn.apps)
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