Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!UMIACS.UMD.EDU!steve
From: steve@UMIACS.UMD.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: The OSF is *what*?
Message-ID: <8909131235.AA13992@fnord.umiacs.UMD.EDU>
Date: 13 Sep 89 12:35:23 GMT
References: <8909130635.AA29672@Larry.McRCIM.McGill.EDU>
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 38


   [Whoa, Steve, calm down, don't send the flame this started out to be...]

   If the situation is being accurately represented, then OSF is making a
major mistake, and deserves some serious flaming.

   If Dave Mack is getting beaten up for no more reason than has been
described, then I see myself in a situation where I can't post context diffs
to Motif sources, for fear of legal retaliation from some droid at OSF.
Others will feel the same way.  People will stop sending out diffs to Motif.
Everyone will have to reinvent the wheel whenever there is a problem to be
fixed.  People will soon give up, install XView (which has a potential
developer base *for the window manager and libraries*, I'm not talking about
application code) of several thousand skilled people, and flush Motif
entirely.  

   I know what I'm talking about.  The lawyers don't.  I've seen it happen.
Do *you*, OSF, want a bunch of legal types to keep your user interface from
winning?  I certainly don't want that to happen -- I'd much rather have
Motif win than XView, for reasons I've stated previously -- but as stuff
like this happens, I find myself saying at night:

	Steve, you can learn to like OPEN LOOK.
	Steve, you can learn to like OPEN LOOK.
	Steve, you can learn to like OPEN LOOK.

   Can someone from OSF present the OSF side of the story, and/or a public
apology to Dave Mack and to the sensibilities of the net, depending on which
is appropriate?

	-Steve

P.S:  If the OSF lawyers are this jumpy, I feel it necessary to state
explicitly that I am speaking for myself, not UMIACS, the University of
Maryland, or any other organization.

Spoken: Steve Miller    Domain: steve@umiacs.umd.edu    UUCP: uunet!mimsy!steve
Phone: +1-301-454-1808  USPS: UMIACS, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742