During our evaluation, my group downloaded and tried several packages. We found a combination of map tool and some other freebies that did the trick.
Now here's the rub, we wouldn't have tried maptool if it had cost anything. I know this is a blast point from reading other forums for products that charge but that's just the way my group is. We game maybe once a month and no one wanted to put any money down.
When we found maptool, we found a cool group of developers that actually listened and a good group of forum posters that were looking for the same sort of tools we were. Of course, since that time I've become addicted but if there were a charge involved I doubt I could get any new players cuz were all older and stingy.
I'm a great believer in the open source movement. Linux is one of the best examples of how powerful it can be. Maptool is another good example. Because the economics of open source are pride, prestige, and fun the motivations for an open source project are different from those of a 'for sale' piece of software. I'm not commie but there is something cool about each giving according to his ability.
All that said, I assume that once Trevor and crew stop having fun developing the products they'll stop coding for it. It will then be up to someone else to take up the gauntlet and continue the effort... or not. That's the way of opensource.
The hope is, over time, more developers will join in the effort to help and that users, such as myseld, will contribute via paypal to help offset some of the infrastructure.
Well, that's my 2 cents for now.
