[goldscott]

There's plenty of software that falls into the 1k to 75k range. Off the top of my head: any professional embedded C compiler or IDE license, MATLAB, MathCad, Adobe CS Suite, various CAD packages. These are all used in engineering environments where maybe a handful of licenses are purchased, at least in the environment I'm currently working in. We don't get salesmen calling us and pushing new releases; we maybe purchase every second or third new version.

Joel writes "You need purchasing managers and CEO approval and competitive bids and paperwork."

I think this is a bit over-reaching. Sure, you need manager approval, but that's been pretty easy to obtain in any engineering environment I've been in. Most of the time the software vendors come up with a new file format that's incompatible with the past, so you're practically forced to upgrade. Never have I seen bids or CEO/CTO approval on the software I'm discussing.

I think perhaps a more relevant range is 5k-75k or even 10k-75k.

(Sorry if I'm doing it wrong, this is my first post here.)

[tadfisher]

You have completely and utterly missed raganwald's point.