why is wireshark so superior and yet free

The sad part is that so many "network analysts" these days either don't bother to look at the IP trace or don't know what they are looking at when they view the IP trace.

Isn't that a good argument to start a business? ;-))

On the other side, the 'sad part' with the network troubleshooting business is, that a lot of decision makers don't see the value of network problem analysis in the first place, as they seem to believe it is possible to solve a network problem by throwing money, CPU power and bandwidth on the problem and make it go away that way.

Anyway, they all come to a point where that strategy does not work any longer and THEN it's time to call for the real network analysts with the cool tools and the knowledge how to use those tools :-))

Wireshark is a cool tool, because it is powerful and free and because there is an active community using, supporting and extending it constantly.

Regards
Kurt

Here's my opinion on why it's free (and why it's great):

1. Because Gerald Combs had a great idea (and great start to) a useful piece of software.
2. Because he had the idea to release his code under the GNU GPL. That means the source code is open and is (and always will be) free to use, modify and distribute. (The timing of this event--around 1998--makes me think Gerald may have been influenced by The Cathedral and the Bazaar. If you haven't read it, you should.)
3. Because the code was GPL and because the software was useful, it attracted users, some of who were developers who then contributed code in order to make it better (in some cases the users became developers so they could contribute; such is the case with one of Wireshark's top contributors). People kept contributing because Wireshark (then Ethereal) developed into a Bazaar-style model which accepted those contributions.

In other words it's great because it's free.

Because lots of people spend a lot of their time improving it, and doing it for free. Some work on it during their office hours because it's their job.