Re: [school-discuss] Scribus Publishing anyone reviewed?

[Rasjid Wilcox <rasjidw@bigpond.com>]

On Sat, 1 Jun 2002 3:23 am, William Abernathy wrote:
> paul wrote:
> > On Thursday 30 May 2002 14:27, you wrote:
> >>http://apps.kde.com/uk/0/show/id/1064/ss?sid=50f81921de1b1836ade08ce2af00
> >>4f f3
> >>
> >>Anyone reviewed or tried this software yet?
>
> I tried it about six months ago, and I couldn't get it to go. I assume it's
> gotten better. If it works, it will be excellent for newsletters, but it
> will always be a second sister in the world of pro prepress -- suitable for
> newsletters and newspapers, but not for things like color packaging design.
>
> Any such software (free prepress) faces a serious hurdle in commercial
> acceptance: spot color. Just as the DVD codecs can be owned and fenced off,
> the important standard for color reproduction (the PANTONE colors) is owned
> and maintained by a single company, and you can't use their color
> designations in your software if you don't pay for it.
>
> Not cricket in the free software world...
>

I would have thought the way around this kind of thing is to either have two 
versions (like OpenOffice and StarOffice) or have a commercial (paid for) 
'plugin'.

That way home users get a completely free and open source product suitable 
for home use, and commercial users pay get get a commercial but 90% open 
source product.  Hopefully any such vendor would give a discount to 
educational institutions.  :-)

I would see this as a big improvement over a 100% closed source option, and I 
think in a number of cases the only way for open source products to match 
commercial products in some areas.  (ie, where there is more than just 'code' 
at stake).

Just my two cents.

Rasjid.