[Coco] Re: Possible OS-9 Project

[James Ross]

jimcox wrote:

>My one thought on this is, if it were to become a reality, 
>I would like to see it more "controlled" like the BSD 
>flavors and not like Linux.  

This is a good point. I have given it a lot of thought. The issue of
license and distribution. I've seen a lot of these discussions in the
past on other newsgroups as well.  Here is what I have gathered so
far. But keep in mind, I am not an open source license guru.  

The problem with BSD is that it is great if I am on the receiving end.
I can take someone else's free code, close the source, make it
proprietary, and sell it like it is an original work of mine. Now, on
the giving side, it means that someone else can do that very same
thing with my work.  I might have to pay somebody to use my free code!
This is a win-loose proposition if you ask me.  

The GPL License, in theory, guarantees that the software will remain
free forever.  If someone else improves on or bases a new project on
my code then they must give the source back when they distribute it,
and then I in turn can use their code, etc. ...

A person can always roll their own License too. Quite a few projects
out there do.  This is a possibility.  For example, I could stipulate
that only I could distribute the code and no one else.  However, to do
this would preclude me from being able to use GPL'd code in my
project. I want to do that.  For example I would borrow heavily from
the MenuetOS project. I have followed that project on and off for a
long time.  But I don't care for how the OS is structured.  Also,
people that might be willing to contribute,  might shy away if there
is a restriction about who can distribute it.  What is nice about the
GPL is it means if you don't like the way a project is going, you fork
another project. Of course, the GPL can lead to the plethora of
different distributions like you have with Linux.  However, if you
take the individual projects that make up a Linux distro, the greater
percentage of those usually have a single "official" maintainer.  

So I am leaning towards the GPL for these reasons.  Besides, everybody
is doing it?  How about that for peer pressure :)

>The problem with most of these, is that they are usually a 
>one or two person project that never gets off the ground, 
>and politics has a lot to due with that.

Yes, this is something I would like to avoid.  What I would like to
see, is slow but constant progress.  Kind of like a garden slug
crossing a sidewalk that makes it to the other side without getting
smushed!

JR