FWIW,
> > > > >- I contribute something to OpenMotif to make it a better product.
> > > > >
> > > > >- I cannot use those contributions on any of my comercial
> > > > > HP's, Sun's, whatever. I wrote it, but I can't use it????
> > > >
> > > > I am not a lawyer... But I seem to remember that the
> > > > original owner of a code, can make it available under
> > > > different licenses and copyrights.
> > > > For example, The Open Group is making Motif available under
> > > > 2 copyrights and 2 license agreements with different rights,
> > > > obligations and fees.
> > > >
> > > > I suspect that you could make additions that you write
> > > > available under both LGPL and the IBM Public license
> > > > as modified by The Open Group.
I think you are also free to use it on HP - but you gotta pay the
license fee. It becomes "Rick's-Motif", not OpenMotif or HP-Motif
in that case.
This is a complex issue for TOG, I think. They do have existing
licensees (Sun, HP, Netscape, I *think* even MS, which may explain
their attitude about Cygwin, etc). Those licensees have *paid*
to use Motif on their platforms, so why should a user of OpenMotif
get for free a right that cost the licensees dearly? IIRC, a while
back I looked at the source code buyout option and it was in the
millions.
The situation can be viewed in different ways by lesstif as well.
o Effectively, lesstif is about 91% there, for 1.2 (that number
may be a little high considering uil, but...). TOG is tacitly
admitting this, and making Motif open for the platforms where
lesstif is mostly used (linux, *BSD, etc). This is doubtlessly
a way to support 3rd parties on the OSS platforms without
requiring those 3rd parties to be OSS themselves. Not that
lesstif requires this, but said parties probably aren't using
lesstif now.
o Effectively, lesstif is 9% not there, and that last 9% may be
(or is, depends on your point of view) impossible for lesstif to
do because it is insufficiently documented (PREREGISTER DnD, for
example). So to aid those 3rd parties, the source has been opened
so that they don't miss the market window for the OSS platforms.
O'Reilly's press release about the new volume 6 in the X series
("We're going to document more than has ever been done before")
no doubt had some effect as well.
Of more interest is what *wasn't* released. I admit, I've been
reading the source for the past couple of days, so I'm "tainted"
now. But the non-inclusion of CDE is amusing. Perhaps lesstif
might take that on in the hopes of getting that released as well,
although I suspect that licensing issues may keep that from ever
happening. Also interesting in that light is that 3rd parties
are probably application sellers, not all that interested in
desktop managers, so CDE isn't a critical piece for them.
But this is all speculation anyway. I reserve the right to be
wrong about all of it.
Mitch
