T_R_Oglodyte
TUG Lifetime Member
It will be like when airlines went from paper tickets to on-line ticketing and stopped giving out free food. Initially there was no drop in price - presumably the cost savings went to the airline. Over time, as ticketing fees were developed and the cost savings has been passed through as airlines competed with each other on the basis of air fares sans frills.A good point, though I wonder how much of the cost savings is actually passed on to the consumer who doesn't need/want a hardcopy.
Personally I'm all in favor of the idea - I like when I can buy a base model, then add (and pay for) the sets of features that I'm most interested in.
As regards manuals, initially I liked my old paper manuals, but now n most cases I much prefer electronic versions. Even if I want a hard copy of something, it's much easier to print out and carry around only the few pages I care about instead of having the whole manual.
The only manual I can think of where I definitely want to have a full paper version is with an automobile. And even with vehicles, I would prefer to have a shorter version to keep in the car that has immediate operation and maintenance information, with a longer and more detailed version of the manual in searchable pdf format on a disk.