Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!xwind!ron
From: ron@xwind.UUCP (Ronald P. Hughes)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: The OSF is *what*?
Summary: Posting Motif diffs
Message-ID: <382@xwind.UUCP>
Date: 16 Sep 89 18:00:06 GMT
References: <8909130635.AA29672@Larry.McRCIM.McGill.EDU> <1989Sep16.054622.21479@alembic.acs.com>
Organization: Fall Creek Technologies, Felton, CA
Lines: 49

In article <1989Sep16.054622.21479@alembic.acs.com>, csu@alembic.acs.com (Dave Mack) writes:
> The OSF products are "open" to OSF members. You
> plunk down your twenty-five grand for membership, then you're entitled
> to buy the Motif source for a grand, and presumably use it in your products.
> (I haven't read the OSF License Agreement - I hope someone from OSF will
> correct me if I'm wrong.) I understand that binary copies are available
> for fifty bucks or thereabouts, although I don't know if you have to be
> an OSF member to get those also. 

You don't have to be an OSF member to obtain Motif sources.  The price is
$1000.00, member or nonmember.  CrossWind Technologies, Inc. has the
distinction of being the first nonmember Motif customer.

OSF expects to receive $40.00 (quantity 1, with discounts for volume)
royalty per binary copy of Motif shipped by someone else.  The price
charged to the end user by that "someone else" could range from zero
to hundreds of dollars.  For instance, a platform manufacturer selling
a hunk of iron for $10,000 might just bundle in Motif "for free" and
pay OSF their due.  But a software vendor, selling and supporting
Motif binaries as part of their product line, might charge a customer
$500.00 and provide training, printed documentation, installation
assistance, etc., and of course pay OSF their $40.00.

The Motif binaries I'm referring to include the toolkit (lots of .o
object files in a bunch of .a libraries) and the Motif Window Manager
(mwm).  OSF does not charge any royalties for end-user applications
built using Motif (such as Synchronize(tm), a new multi-user
calendaring program with an easy-to-use graphics interface that
allows technical and nontechnical users to easily schedule meetings
without conflicts, maintain prioritized to-do lists, add popup
notes (such as meeting agendas), and so forth, which is going to
be shipped soon to select beta sites and will be available on
YOUR favorite X platform before the end of the year) [A marketeer
made me type all that].

As far as posting diffs are concerned, OSF maintains mailing lists
to which Motif source licencees (both members and nonmembers) can
be added.  All mail sent to these mailing lists (including diffs)
can be received by everyone with a (legal) copy of the Motif source.
Since these mailing lists exist, it just doesn't make sense to post
diffs to public newsgroups.  It chews up net bandwidth, since
presumably those without Motif source won't be that interested in
Motif source diffs, and it makes OSF's lawyers itch.

Speaking of OSF's lawyers, all of the above is just my opinion.
Contact OSF for the real facts.

Ronald P. Hughes		ron@xwind.com (or ...!uunet!xwind!ron)
CrossWind Technologies, Inc.	(408)335-4988