Doug Werth wrote after Bruce Toback,

>To a certain extent this has long been a CYA issue as much as anything
else.
>The purchase of a product or license to use comes with an expected
warranty
>from the company concerning both support and longevity. If it doesn't
work
>as advertised you have someone to blame. Public domain types of
software
>comes with neither support nor longevity "guaranteed." Thus, you have
nobody
>to point a finger at except for the person who recommended using said
>software.

"Expected warranty" doesn't mean working software. Haven't you seen
commercial products with continuing bugs. Just because we have HP or
Microsoft to blame doesn't make me feel any better. With public domain
software, I have the ability to fix it myself or hire someone to fix it.
Usually though, fixes come pretty fast. Maybe I'm way off, but in my
experience, expected warranty doesn't seem to account for much.

John Zoltak
North American Mfg Co