At 12:47 PM -0700 on 5/29/99, Richard Gaskin wrote:
>The reason I ask is that I don't have a clear understanding of the
>OpenSource process.
>
>When I think about the task of making something as substantial as
>MetaCard, it seems we're talking about something on the order of a
>multi-platform sub-operating system, a task no smaller than Linux.
I'm hoping it will be smaller than Linux... but Linux was written by one
person. We've got at least three.
>
>In my (admittedly limited) observations, the OpenSource success of Linux
>is a wonderful exception, but does not appear to be the rule.
Take a look at <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/> Look at all the utilities, programs,
etc. there. They are all free software.
Look at egcs/gcc. It is one of the -- if not the most -- popular compiler
on Unix boxes.
The list goes on.
Oh, and can't forget the web server that serves the majority of the WWW:
Apache.
Or the news server, ftp server, etc.
>Progress
>at Netscape appears to be slow,
Are you using the NS release version or the mozilla.org version? THe
mozzila.org version needs 8.5 so I can't use it. However, has anyone tried
it?
>commercial sofware sales continue to
>rise,
No surprise -- so do sales for all of the computer industry.
How's OpenSource adaption going?
>and the big companies experimenting with OpenSource seem to be
>limiting their experiments to code which was largely OpenSource to begin
>with (e.g., Apple's OS X Server _kernel only_).
It's fear on their part. It's a trial balloon, more or less.
>Yes, many companies are
>making big investments in _Linux_, but not necessarily OpenSource;
>ironically most of these big investments are for developing commercial
>products.
Visit www.cygnus.com
>
>When we consider the engineering challenge involved, the resources
>required to just maintain something like SuperCard (a Mac-specific
>xTalk), and then multiply that effort threefold or more to handle other
>operating systems, my fear is that the task will not have been completed
>before the necessity of paying bills forces it onto a backburner. I hope
>I'm wrong, and look forward to gaining the perspective needed to
>understand how it could work.
The reason it will work is because there are not just three people who
maintain the thing. A good percentage of the time, when a bug is found in
OpenSource software, a patch to fix it accompanies the bug report. People
take the time to find & fix bugs because they can and because their own use
of the product depends on it.
>
>Historically, xTalk companies have been living on slender margins. To
>date, only three survive: SuperCard, ToolBook, and MetaCard.
Excpet htat profit from the app is not all that important when people work
on it due to a need for it; they sell the products they make with it
(primarily)
>
>If slender margins have extracted such a heavy toll from most xTalks
>before, how will OpenCard survive on zero, or more accurately, negative
>margins?
First, free software _can_ be sold.
Second, as pointed out above, we're doing this because we need a
HyperCard-like product.
>What is the business model of OpenSource as it applies
>specifically to OpenCard?
Hmmm... for more info on OpenSource <http://www.opensource.org/>
<http://www.fsf.org/> <http://www.gnu.org/>
I don't quite understand what you mean by "business model". I don't think
we intend to quite our day jobs (those of us who aren't students, that is)
-- at least for a while.
