[scribus] Adobe ends perpetual licenses

["Christoph Schäfer"]

> 
> >> 5) Many InDesign installations are on computers owned by large
> >> organizations, corporations, government agencies, universities. My
> >> own university has the Adobe suite on graduate student computer
> >> labs, but not on undergraduate computer labs. Even Openoffice was
> >> recently removed from undergraduate computer labs. Why? Lack of human
> >> resources to support it and lack of computer hardware - not enough
> >> disk space to handle the latest versions of Windows/MacOS and MS
> >> Office. Asking the IT department to install Scribus, of which they
> >> know zero, is not likely to be effective.
> >
> >I don't understand how this is related to the issue of Adobe vs.
> >alternatives (not necessarily FLOSS alternatives, but alternatives in
> >general).
> 
> OK, here is something I failed to explain. I spent a good deal of my
> life in sales. Now, before you assume that I'm a sleazeball whose goal
> is to screw the customer, that is an assessment of some salespersons,
> but not of a professional salesperson. A professional salesperson is
> out to serve the needs of the customer in hopes of securing repeat
> business. 

OK, but how do hardware limitations explain the non-use of FLOSS software? If they can install one version of InDesign, they can install four or more versions of Scribus on the same disk ;) Same with GIMP, Inkscape, LO etc.

> 
> But one thing you learn quickly in sales is that perception is more
> important than facts, at least as long as you have covered legal and
> ethical requirements for full disclosure. InDesign users, their
> customers, and IT departments in large organizations have a perception
> of FLOSS as evincing all of my points above. Whether they are true or
> not is irrelevant. That is what they think, and they will make their
> decisions on their perception of reality, unreal as their perceptions
> may be. You can rail against my points and I will not disagree with
> you, but I am not the one you need to convince.

Agreed, perception is of crucial importance.

> 
> The commercial software vendors have spent a fortune on advertising to
> promote exactly the attitudes that I note. It will not be easy to
> overcome those beliefs.

We don't have a fortune to spend on ads, and this won't change. All we can do is work on improving the software and its documentation, as well as making sure we get some press coverage (and improve the website from time to time).

Christoph