Re: the Papenmeir device that was supposed to be coming out

["Saqib Shaikh" <ss@saqibshaikh.com>]

Hi,

I'm talking here as a very poor student who has had to fight for all the
equipment he has got.  However, the whole argument that other Linux screen
readers should be free because Speakup is, and that Papenmeier should cut
prices is all a bit silly.  I would *love* to have one of these products.
But at the same time GNU themselves say that Free software means free in
terms of freedom, not money.  So Papenmeier are perfectly within the terms
of the GPL in charging for their product.  Sure, it'd be a nice thing to see
a speech-only version, but maybe in Germany there isn't the demand.  I agree
that some products, particularly software products, are way over priced, but
in this case when you consider the high price of braille, plus the licensing
fees for the software synthesiser which I think is made form Elan, the
hardware is quite pricy.

Now, I'm making these numbers up, but lets say they sold a few hundred units
and made a few hundred profit on each (unlikely) and then have paid for the
overheads, how much money is going to be left for the poor employees who
must pretty good at computing to come up with the best note taker for the
blind ever!

So in summary, there are certain companies who make software products that
haven't been updated for three or four years, but still retail at £300, and
this is silly since no money has been put into maintainance in that time.
However while as a student I really really really want this new note taker,
one day I also want to work for a company and support a family.

So you all have the right to your opinions, but I thought it was time I
expressed mine.

Thanks, Saqib Shaikh