On 25-May-99 Frederic L. W. Meunier wrote:
># To subscribers of the xforms list from "Frederic L. W. Meunier"
># <fredlwm@urbi.com.br> :
>
> Hi. XForms is free for non commercial use I think, and I agree with it.
> If you make money using anything, sendind X% to the author is good. But why
> not release
> the source code and stop making only binaries? Save ftp space and just
> release the source
> code. Releasing the source code may improve XForms development. I don't know
> if
> XForms-glibc.tgz will work with a glibc 2.1 based Linux distribution like
> RedHat 6.0.
> But again, please grow releasing the source code. I'm stopping using
> XForms based applications and various developers are now using others less
> restrictive toolkits.
> Peace.
How does the Xforms policy fit in with Open Source? As I understand it, Open
Source means the source is available ( for lot's of good reasons), but unlike
GPL you can make money from the considerable development work. The Xforms
policy is confusing and it limits the usefulness. I confess I do not understand
where the Xforms authors are coming from, either:
a) They want to make some money, in which case they should define clear terms
so we all know where we are.
or
b) They just do it for the fun of it all, in which case the issue of the source
doesn't matter, and we could all learn something from the examples.
There are several main problems with Xforms as a commercial tool for me:
1) Without the source you can't be sure of the support
2) You are never sure of the products future, I know one of Xform's main
features is it's stability but it seems a long time between releases.
These, for me, were the big questions of software in the eighties. Linux
removed them and slaughtered a sacred cow. In this, Xforms seems dated.
On the other hand, one must respect the authors wishes. This topic comes up
from time to time and the reason it does is because the arguments for the
position just don't seem to stack up.
-- IanIan Leonard
eMail: ian@eonsw.demon.co.uk Phone: +44 (0)1865 765273 Fax: +44 (0)1865 765280 19 Stapleton Road Headington, Oxford, OX3 7LX, UK
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