On Tue, May 16, 2000 at 12:41:27PM +0200, Dusan Peterc wrote:
> Hello, everybody!
>
> I usually do not write letters of this kind, so please do not discard it
>
> as "opinon" which is not backed by code. I write this out of respect
> for your work, and believe me, I have better uses for my time.
> I have read your preliminary statement regarding
> the release of Motif source code, and ask you to reconsider.
>
> I totally agree with you that TOG's release is not completely "open" in
> the GNU sense of the word. But you must understand, that companies
> work in a different way from a group of individuals, and that maybe
> their license was the best they could do. So please do not use
> the all-or-nothing approach which has lead to so many schisms and
> duplication of work in the open source field.
>
> And look from a practical point of view - every existing Unix system
> already has Motif as part of normal development system, and any
> free operating system can now have it for free. And this is all what is
> needed by most of Motif's users.
[...]
What has changed?
LessTif is neither a linux core project nor an official GNU one.
Idea is a 'free' (here currently LGPL) M*tif implementation.
Now what happened: there's a kind of 'better' LessTif for some platforms.
Would be like a company in the past would have decided to give away some
M*tif binary CDROMs.
The OM FAQ indicates that perhaps/sometime in the future they might
have another license but that's similar to the situation in the past:
there have been rumours of OM for about a year (or more?) but you'll
never know whether it will really happen.
Also one doesn't have to be a "GNU"/"OpenSource" fanatic person to
understand that a license like the OM one should not be supported at
all. It's just an attempt to destroy real "open source' movement,
something one could have expected from another company, this with the
"M" in the beginning ... ;-)
--
Alexander Mai
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
