Mail Archives: opendos/1997/09/10/05:30:53
> > > > I ask this: What good is having the kernel sources if one cannot
> > > > update the utility set to accomodate new kernel features?
> > > > Could someone please explain this.
> > > Drop it away. Completely or nearly so. Use GNU utilities set instead ;).
> > > It does look more like _Open_DOS, right?
> >
> > I have rolled some of my own things, but I don't have any desire
> > to code full utility sets.
> >
What are you all whining about? Didn't you read any of the
announcements from Caldera? Did they ever promise to give you the
source for the entire operating system?
Caldera _bought_ the sources to OD and then placed both binaries and
some sources on the net. You didn't pay a penny, peso, lira, yen, etc.
Yet, you think it is your right to demand the sources for it all.
Frankly, you are all spoiled rotten.
Caldera is a business. They expect to make a return on their
investment. The people from Caldera who get on this list from time to
time expect to get paid for their services. The machine that Caldera
bought to put the sources on so that you could download it had to be
purchased. The internet connection has to be paid for and so on. Yet,
you expect to get everything for free. Why, because it's software and
it should be free? I know some of you work in the field. What if your
employer asked you to write code for them but not pay you because after
all, software should be free?
Someone asked why not write your own utilities. The answer was
basically that it was too much work and its easier to get them from
someone else. Someone else offered a list of GPL'ed alternatives and
the answer was basically that it wasn't exactly what they wanted and
there were bugs in that code.
My question is: what makes you so special that Caldera, Linus Torvalds
or myself should bend over backwards for you? You want free software?
Then contribute your time to it. Support it. Contribute bug fixes.
Make donations. You downloaded software from a commercial concern and
didn't pay a cent for it? Be thankful that they made it available to
you. Microsoft wouldn't give you the binaries for free, much less the
full source code.
Linux is very successful because there were sources to utilities
available on the net and many people were willing to contribute their
time and energy to make it all work together. Those people did it for
various reasons, yet there are plenty of CD-ROM vendors, including
Caldera, who are making a profit from their work. I am amazed when I
see how many CD-ROM collections include my code. I never saw a penny
from any of it and never will. I didn't expect to see any money either.
FreeDOS wasn't as successful because the kernel and all the utilities
had to be written from scratch and too many people with the attitude
that they should get it for free without contributing followed the
development. Too bad -- you could have had everything you wanted sooner
and GPL'ed to boot. I've got 32-bit intel and 64-bit alpha kernels and
utilities based on my DOS-C code. I'm not sure that I'm going to make
any of it freely available. Who knows, this code may never see the
light of day because I've amused myself by writing the code. It
certainly is nice to see multiple DOS sessions running and none of them
crashing each other. If I offer it for free no one will appreciate it
anyway. Why bother?
Caldera used the open software model with a twist: use it for free for
non-commercial applications but pay them for the right to put it into
your product, resell it, etc. Smart move on their part -- make the
software itself the vehicle to attract commercial attention. Sort of a
grown-up shareware concept. I hope they're successful.
Well, keep whining. Maybe Caldera will give in and give you the source
to the whole package. Personally, it's attitudes like this that makes
me sorry that I wrote free software in the first place.
Pat
--
+--------------------------------+------------------------------------+
| Pat Villani | Email: patv AT iop DOT com |
| | Amateur call: WB2GBF |
+--------------------------------+------------------------------------+
| I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, doctor, and I'm happy to |
| state I finally won out over it. -- Elwood P. Dowd |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
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