wkmac
Well-Known Member
In the days where software was distributed on magnetic media, such as reels of tape, cassettes, or floppy disks, it cost a lot of money to get the product to a customer. As a result, large companies and software publishers were the only ones with the financial resources to get these applications into a retail channel. There were very few independent software developers; and those who did exist were very small operations.
Then along came the Internet and everything changed. Distribution was suddenly cheap.
I remember a conversation with my good friend Cabel Sasser a few years ago. He and I were reminiscing about our first foray into online distribution and were surprised that we had the same initial reaction: “Holy crap! We can put our software on the Internet and people will actually buy it!”
Many other developers had this same experience and began leaving large companies to work on their own. Making a good living while having the freedom to work on their passion was a great life.
The Rise and Fall of the Independent Developer
