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Chyist Dec 8, 1998 D
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========================================================================= Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1998 14:35:37 -0800
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Berm Lee <bermlee@POMONA.EDU>
Subject: Re: economics of free software
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Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
Back in the early 90s, a software company called Hangul and Computer posted print advertisements in all the major Korean computer magazines. It essentially read,
"Thank You, <Lovely Software> "
Lovely Software, a now defunct "software distribution" company, used to do its business selling unauthorized copies of Apple software (Korea was also known for various Apple computer clones), for 1000 won a disk. (around $1.43 then and you brought the disk). I remember going there with my brother, entering the small, musty little office with shelves of 5 1/4" disks. While Hangul and Computer (HNC) never specified whether Lovely Software helped HNC sell shrink-wrapped versions of HNC's "Hangul Word Processor" (often referred to as "HWP."), or continued simply their original business model of paid piracy.
Either way, this discussion simply reminds me how HNC turned a blind eye and even openly thanked the most successful (not-so-underground) free-software distribution enterprise in Korea's pre-wired era.
In Korea, the leading Office software isn't by Microsoft. Hangul and Computer (HNC) develops the leading word processor and accompanying office suite in Korea today. HNC even acknowledges that it wouldn't have reached the market base it needed to defeat Microsoft to the standard if piracy was not allowed.
Sure, Microsoft software oft "bundled" with new machines, "license-free," and there were other functional reasons why Koreans ended up preferring the homegrown HNC solution to the Microsoft localized versions of Word for Windows. In any case, HNC still competes handsomely with Microsoft, even pioneering functions (like AutoCorrect, faxing through a print command, and most importantly, a working Korean Soft Font engine for Windows95) before Microsoft ever implemented them.
As I remember it, the original DOS version (HWP 1.5) fit into one 1.44MB 3 1/2 floppy. I think that was the greatest aid to its ubiquity. Bring a disk, go home happy.
Berm Lee
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Berm Lee <bermlee@POMONA.EDU>
Subject: Re: economics of free software
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
Back in the early 90s, a software company called Hangul and Computer posted print advertisements in all the major Korean computer magazines. It essentially read,
"Thank You, <Lovely Software> "
Lovely Software, a now defunct "software distribution" company, used to do its business selling unauthorized copies of Apple software (Korea was also known for various Apple computer clones), for 1000 won a disk. (around $1.43 then and you brought the disk). I remember going there with my brother, entering the small, musty little office with shelves of 5 1/4" disks. While Hangul and Computer (HNC) never specified whether Lovely Software helped HNC sell shrink-wrapped versions of HNC's "Hangul Word Processor" (often referred to as "HWP."), or continued simply their original business model of paid piracy.
Either way, this discussion simply reminds me how HNC turned a blind eye and even openly thanked the most successful (not-so-underground) free-software distribution enterprise in Korea's pre-wired era.
In Korea, the leading Office software isn't by Microsoft. Hangul and Computer (HNC) develops the leading word processor and accompanying office suite in Korea today. HNC even acknowledges that it wouldn't have reached the market base it needed to defeat Microsoft to the standard if piracy was not allowed.
Sure, Microsoft software oft "bundled" with new machines, "license-free," and there were other functional reasons why Koreans ended up preferring the homegrown HNC solution to the Microsoft localized versions of Word for Windows. In any case, HNC still competes handsomely with Microsoft, even pioneering functions (like AutoCorrect, faxing through a print command, and most importantly, a working Korean Soft Font engine for Windows95) before Microsoft ever implemented them.
As I remember it, the original DOS version (HWP 1.5) fit into one 1.44MB 3 1/2 floppy. I think that was the greatest aid to its ubiquity. Bring a disk, go home happy.
Berm Lee
______________________________________________________________________
