I agree 100%. I also think it is time to say that freedom is about everything
not only a single concept (OS in that case) even I really support the Open Source
stream.
It is kind of weird to read that some people would NOT FEEL FREE under Linux to
release
binary only software. Sounds like a contradiction to mee ...
Philippe
"Patrick M. May" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> I do believe that you are correct. There is always that specific group that
> will cause problems when things are not exactly what they want. I think it
> would be great if companies would open source their stuff, but that won't
> happen. The next best thing would indeed be for binary only software. Given
> that Linux is going more mainstream and drawing people in who have generally
> not had source available (i.e. Windows and Mac users) the community as a
> whole will be more accepting of binary only.
>
> I think a model such as Corel has taken with WordPerfect is great. You give
> out a version of your software that is above the 30-45 day die ware that
> many companies give out, that only is less some functionality (fonts in WP),
> and then sell a version that has some more features. (As far as I know, the
> only difference in the Download and PE of WP is the font issue.) I like Word
> Perfect and had an Academic version of Suite 8 for Win, and purchased the PE
> version for Linux because 1) I thought the font support would be nice, and
> 2) I wanted to send them a message that binary was okay.
>
> I think that perhaps contacting some of these companies that already have
> done DVD viewers and letting them know that in fact binary only is ok. They
> probably already have paid the fee to DVD CCA and could be the first ones
> out and grab a nice chunk of the market. I'm sure that they don't charge
> much to the video card manufacturers and possibly could charge somewhere
> around the same amount and the community would buy it. The thing to remember
> is that for those publicly held companies, their first obligation is to
> their shareholders, not to the customer.
>
> We need people who are level headed and won't throw a tantrum when someone
> releases binaries, or doesn't do anything. I think that Bruce Perans does a
> lot in this regards. If I wrote software and was looking at releasing
> something to the Linux (or any other Open Source community) and seen the
> fall out (mail bombing and the like) binary only, I would definitely think
> twice about it. Who wants to clean up all that stuff?
>
> Sorry I got a little carried away. I'm tired of the people who insist on
> EVERYTHING being OS.
>
> Patrick
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Brad Cramer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> > Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2000 09:16
> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: Re: [OT] DVD reading (was Re: Misc hardware questions
> >
> >
> > I guess one question I have about this whole issue is I like everyone else
> > in the Linux community believe in open source, but if a company
> > dosen't want
> > to open it's source what is stopping them from diong a bianary
> > only version
> > of a DVD viewer, they do that for Windows and Mac's. I guess my point is
> > that if there is a piece of hardware that I want to use (i.e. DVD) and I
> > can't get the source code I am willing to use a bianary only piece of
> > software in order to use my hardware. Do all hardware manufactors not want
> > to write software for Linux because they believe that if they do that they
> > have to open their source?
> > Just my .02 cents worth.
> > Brad
>
>
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