Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 17:55:53 +1200
From: physmsa AT cantua DOT canterbury DOT ac DOT nz (Mr M S Aitchison)
Subject: Re: DrDos really free?
To: opendos AT delorie DOT com
Reply-to: M DOT Aitchison AT phys DOT canterbury DOT ac DOT nz
Message-id: <199809030555.RAA22032@cantua.canterbury.ac.nz>
Precedence: bulk

There are two meanings to "free" - one being "no cost", the other
relating to freedom as Richard Stallman and Gnu see it... if the
free/open development model were used - as has been very successful for
Linux - then I think DRDOS would do much better.

I expect the most popular situation for everybody would be:

1. Allow the core of DRDOS (IBM*.COM, COMMAND.COM, EMM386, SYS.COM, *.SYS)
   to be available for free via ftp, and allowed to be placed on ftp sites
   but not modified in any way (i.e. not GPLed, unlike Freedos). Perhaps
   allow it to be used in non-commercial products like Linux distributions
   after obtaining permission from Caldera.

   This increases the popularity of DRDOS, but doesn't cut out sales of
   the product to those who traditionally pay and demand a hardcopy
   manual and good support.  Should increase the chances of DRDOS
   running rock-solid on new hardware without Caldera doing all the
   work themselves and without modified versions floating around the
   net out of control.  Increases the attraction of DRDOS to
   OEMs/embedded systems customers.

2. Set up project leaders for various external commands and utilities
   within DRDOS, (such as FILELINK, EDITOR), and make them GPL (or close)
   since these are mainly alternatives to shareware/free utilities that
   aren't worth a lot traditional paying customers (except that
   anything they get they're going to insist is modern and works).

3. Sell diskettes and CDs and site licences of DRDOS with support, either
   in conjunction with a retailer (that may, for example, provide a
   service to sites that includes fixing Y2K problems) or bundled with
   extra software to solve a particular need - e.g. kiosk embedded
   systems, or web/networking on home computers that cannot run Linux
   or Windows.  I, for example, would like to see a combination of
   DRDOS and the latest QEMM and Netware client/peer. The cost of
   buying a CD is insignificant to costs of not having a supported
   working solution, so I can't see Caldera missing out on many sales.

Mark