Mail Archives: opendos/2000/12/02/03:07:42
Many years ago, when Novell first introduced DPMS, it was for the purpose
you mentioned. In fact it will work with MS DOS, PC DOS and most probably
other DOSes as well. they documented this. So it would seem that DPMS is
just like DMPI, VCPI and other such standards. It is just that, another
standard in which anyone is free to use. I would assume that this is the
same as including PKUNZIP or UNRAR and other such utilities with software.
It is free, you do not have to refister it and you do not have to pay for
it.
If this is what Novell originally licensed it for, then how can Caldera,
Lineo or anyone else change this licensing?
It is just like GNU or GPL, once something has been licesed through it no
one can change it. Not even GigaBuck Gates can do that! (Or can he? look at
what he did with BASIC! However times have changed and no one today could do
what Gates did back then.)
So if you want to send DPMS.EXE to someone, you can do so and they can use
it with whatever brand of DOS they have if it is compatible. It WAS
compatible with MS DOS but Gates may have changed some API in later versions
of DOS so it won't work since he will not get any BUCK$ for it!
GREEEEEEEEEED!
Look at the TIDs I sent to Club DOS, I believe one of those talk about it.
Also look at the original Novell DOS license agreement, It also may refer to
this topic. I don't have it handy, it is one tape, I just recently erased
those diskettes and put DRDOS 7.03 on them. Still can't find that original
PNW TUTOR diskette. Hope I did not accidently erase that one before I saved
it to tape. PNW also uses DPMS for it's VLMs and maybe other things as well.
Pat
----- Original Message -----
From: "Da Silva, Joe" <Joe DOT DaSilva AT emailmetering DOT com>
To: <opendos AT delorie DOT com>
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2000 11:07 PM
Subject: RE: Greed (was DPMS info)
> BTW, when I said "reversed their stand", I meant *again*
> (after DR-DOS 7.02) ... that is, perhaps Caldera/Lineo
> "came to their senses" later? ...
>
> As for Novell's versions of DPMS.EXE, I have never heard
> of them asking for royalties for this - it just doesn't
> make sense for them to - they wanted to encourage people
> to use DPMS. So, AFAIK, *any* Novell version of DPMS.EXE
> can be distributed free of royalties with client app's.
> I'm sure the OpenDOS 7.01 royalty-free policy is simply
> a continuation of Novell's policy for DPMS (until greed
> made Caldera/Lineo change this, a bit later).
>
> So, what remains to be determined is either :
> 1. Have Caldera/Lineo "reversed their stand" (see above)?
> 2. If not, are the last Novell version or the OpenDOS
> 7.01 version satisfactory?
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