>> On Sat, 4 Nov 2017, userbeit...@abwesend.de wrote: >>> Isn't that exactly what JPSoftware did with 4DOS? >>> And speaking of it, 4DOS isn't free - it is specifically restricted to >>> FreeDOS, which makes it non-free. >>>
> On 2017-11-05 01:48, geneb wrote: >> Which is basically nonsense because the person that released the software >> specifically states that, "I don't have any problems with people using it on >> those OS's (although I'd be surprised if there was a lot of MS-DOS or PC-DOS >> action left). That license was written by the FreeDOS people . it was >> probably worded that way because it's impossible to list every possible >> variation of the DOS OS's." On Sun, Nov 5, 2017 at 5:52 AM, <userbeit...@abwesend.de> wrote: > Agreed. So this makes it implicit that you can use 4DOS on any other DOS (or > DOS emulator/environment) you like. Still, the license is what probably > holds in court. Not that anyone would be intrerested.... I helped JP Software with the source code release to 4DOS, and the license was my greatest mistake in open source software. JP planned to continue selling 4NT (now TakeCommand), which was based on 4DOS, and didn't want to compete with a forked open source version of 4DOS running on NT. I suggested they might include a term that limited the portability of the code. They interpreted that as "only on FreeDOS." That made 4DOS nonfree software, and I've regretted it ever since. In retrospect, I should have stuck to my original suggestion to use the GNU GPL. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user