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Xref: sserve comp.unix.sysv386:23424 comp.windows.x:44819 comp.os.linux:9396 comp.os.mach:2081 comp.unix.bsd:4645 comp.sys.ibm.pc:20945 comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware:30621 Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386,comp.windows.x,comp.os.linux,comp.os.mach,comp.unix.bsd,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!sun-barr!ames!pacbell.com!att-out!cbnewsj!dwex From: dwex@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (david.e.wexelblat) Subject: Re: Free software and the future of support for Diamond products Organization: AT&T Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1992 21:01:59 GMT Message-ID: <1992Sep6.210159.18607@cbnewsj.cb.att.com> Keywords: Diamond, free-software References: <1992Sep3.162413.19770@cbnewsj.cb.att.com> <eaVY02MJ20P.01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> Lines: 46 In article <eaVY02MJ20P.01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> gab10@griffincd.amdahl.com (Gary A Browning) writes: > What is XFree86's feeling about negotiating the distribution of a very > small binary library with their release that contains just the > Diamond Configuration routines. This would not be any more reverse > engineerable than the ROM supplied with the video cards, it allows the > server to still be distributed in source form, and it keeps a lot of > Diamond's current and future customers happy. > > For those users that do not have one of these cards, they get complete > source code. For those that do have the cards, they get complete source > code except for the Video Card Clock Configuration routine. > > It the longer term, my guess is that the Diamond policy will change when > its competators release their cards. At this point the source could be > included. > -- > Gary Browning | Exhilaration is that feeling you get just after a > | great idea hits you, and just before you realize > | what is wrong with it. I should have covered this topic in the initial posting. We discussed this possibility and decided that we have no desire to enter the legal tangle involved in signing the non-disclosures that would be involved. I, for one, could not sign such an agreement, given my current employment status. And the others are not willing to take on the responsibility. So this will not happen. We are sorry if there are people who can't use our software, but we are not in business. We are a bunch of hackers putting something together in our spare time, using our own financial resources to do it. We can't be all things to all people. So until Diamond changes their policies, we will not go to any effort to support them. We are already expending more effort to try to get data to use to get them to change their policy than some of us think should be expended. That's the way it is, and that's the way it will remain. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- David Wexelblat | dwex@mtgzfs3.att.com | Somebody get me a AT&T Bell Laboratories | ...!att!mtgzfs3!dwex | cheeseburger! 200 Laurel Ave - 4B-421 | | Middletown, NJ 07748 | (908) 957-5871 | --Steve Miller Band