Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!public!valentin
From: valentin@public.BTR.COM (Valentin Pepelea)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: Source to OS (Was Re:  Information on Amiga Technical Reference Seri)
Message-ID: <3094@public.BTR.COM>
Date: 18 Jun 91 03:31:13 GMT
References: <3034@public.BTR.COM>
Organization: BTR Communications, Mtn. View, CA
Lines: 37

In article <1070.285770a5@vger.nsu.edu> manes@vger.nsu.edu ((Mark D. Manes),
Norfolk State University) writes:
>
>Yes, but all of them that I know of require a large licensing fee and 
>lengthy legal documentation to be signed.   I wonder why they bother 
>since the 'copyright' protects them.

First of all, only AT&T does such a thing to my knowledge. Secondly, *most*
software packages come with an additional licensing agreement thrown into
the box, even if no source code is included? Why? The software industry is
still young, and therefore lawyers fell the need to protect their companies
right with additional mubo jumbo. Either that, or they just need a way to
justify their bills.

>Releasing the source would be like 'putting ones laundry out'.  I see
>no advantage for Commodore to do this.  Do you?

In my opinion, Commodore's source code is not that ugly. But perhaps you have
previously heard that releasing a list of known bugs would be "putting one's
laundry out." But then Sun does exactly that, to the relief of many
developers. Actually, it might be illegal to conceal the existence and
nature of such deficiencies in products, but that is another subject.

>> "An operating system without virtual memory      Name:      Valentin Pepelea
>>  is an operating system without virtue."         Phone:     (408) 985-1700
>   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Boy do I disagree with this.. :-)

And so does Commodore, but the competition will eventually force them to adopt
my stance.

Valentin
-- 
"An operating system without virtual memory      Name:      Valentin Pepelea
 is an operating system without virtue."         Phone:     (408) 985-1700
                                                 Usenet:    mips!btr!valentin
                     - Ancient Inca Proverb      Internet:  valentin@btr.com