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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!network.ucsd.edu!usc!howland.reston.ans.net!torn!nott!cunews!revcan!micor!latour!mcr From: mcr@Sandelman.OCUnix.on.ca (Michael Richardson) Subject: Re: So you say you want an interim release of 386bsd? (What to do?) Message-ID: <1993May10.023016.25206@Sandelman.OCUnix.on.ca> Organization: Sandelman Software Works, Debugging Department, Ottawa, ON References: <C6M5J0.AIq@sugar.neosoft.com> <C6oF5x.9or@megatest.com> Date: Mon, 10 May 1993 02:30:16 GMT Lines: 72 Against my better judgement (yeah, I went out cycling at noon in the sun today), I'll bite. In article <C6oF5x.9or@megatest.com> albrecht@megatest.com (Dave Albrecht) writes: >From article <C6M5J0.AIq@sugar.neosoft.com>, by peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva): >> In article <1993May6.133359.7640@gmd.de> veit@mururoa.gmd.de (Holger Veit) writes: >>> Since this is apparently not the direction, the serious question arises >>> what NetBSD is really good for, >> >> A common base for a free production operating system that can be used by >> hobbyists and small entrepreneurs alike, as opposed to a pure-hobby system >> like Linux or a pure-research system like 386BSD. >> -- >Equally important in my view, it provides a large repository of code pieces of >which can be used in the workplace or home projects that I then have the freedom to >sell or not without including the source. In some ways it is more frustrating >to have to re-invent the wheel when wheels are available that are perfectly >adequate but the wrong color (i.e. GPL when you are doing work that you might >want to commercialize) than if there were no available wheels at all. There is nothing in the GPL to prevent you from `commercializing' software. What it really prevents you from doing is a quick sale of some code and then disappearing. I've never quite figured out why BUYERS of software, especially PC software haven't been screaming bloody murder over the kind of customer service they are getting. Case example: Apparently WP craps all over floppy FAT tables when used on a Novell network. It doesn't happen every time, but it happens often. Ever try explaining to some poor psych or english major who just got over a major conceptual hurdle and figured out how to use the damn wordprocessor, WHY their document has been trashed? I thought this was a recent bug. Then I learned that the Journalism students at Carleton University were warned out this bug _three_ years ago. Give the symbol table, and a couple of weeks to hack 286 and 386 GDT tables and I'll tell you what routine is trashing what. The university pays a lot of money for their WordInperfect site license. >While I admire and respect and yes, use GNU software it isn't as useful to me >as it could be because I won't borrow any of the code in it for my own purposes >as it restricts my freedoms with how I choose to distribute the result. Ah! Too much trouble to keep a disk/tape around for three years in case they want the code? You mean, you can't do that and you expect me to buy software from you? What about maintenance? Bug fixes? Very few companies expect upgrades to be free at this point. Want to sell some business software, say maybe some MRP software? [to keep things on familiar ground for me]. They have this neat concept called ``escrow'' --- tapes go to a lawyer, who puts them away in a vault somewhere, just in case your company goes under. Sound like the GPL to you? Sure sounds like it to me. >With all the efforts in languages to foster and encourage reusable code it is >nice to see lights in the GPL murk producing code that will be resuable by >everyone, not just those producing GPLed software. Wait a minute... you are happy that you can rip off work that would not have been possible without the GPL? And you won't share your stuff with the rest of us? You know why the suits are so thrilled about OOP languages? It is really clear and simple if you used the Foo Class or not. ``Software ICs'' --- and 30,000 lawyers to work out all the licensing required. -- :!mcr!: | The postmaster never | So much mail, Michael Richardson | resolves twice. | so little time. HOME: mcr@sandelman.ocunix.on.ca Bell: (613) 798-0698 SCHOOL: mcr@physics.carleton.ca