Charles Moir wrote:
And although over the decades there is not a class of software we've not been involved in, from games to databases, spreadsheets, interpreters and compilers, even hardware design, I'd say that we've been involved in publishing software more than anything - be it word processors, Postscript interpreters (this is where our rendering engine started life 15 years ago), DTP packages and graphics software of all types. So a pretty broad background.
Sounds like you are trying to recruit the Inkscape team to work for you :) Can't blame you - it's a terrific and talented group. And I would think most of us can sympathize with you - you have a technically good product and are staring in the face of gorillas that want to own the market and have the resources to roll over anyone in their way.
BUT, your analogy to the ants cannot survive somehow reminds me of Darl McBride saying there can be no free Linux. Probably Xara can't survive but Inkscape is surviving quite well and can in the future. Kind of the way the US can beat another army - they can't beat the insurgents (oh and that's true of the Nazis vs the resistance, the Romans vs the Goths). And sorry, but your concept of purely selling a value added free software package is most likely doomed - ie Real Player or the way Red Hat gave up on the boxed distro (RH and Novell sell to the Enterprise) - on the individual side you get crushed on the top by the commercial gorillas and crushed from the bottom by the free stuff.
But there's hope. However, you have to do more different things - like come up with a way to make this Pantone license thing irrelevant - the way Google's doing it to Windows, Apple is doing it to Windows Media Player. As Tom Peters says - you need to get around some freaks - though I prefer the phrase "unconventional thinkers" :)