[Coco] CoCoNet and Linux

[Roger Merchberger]

[[ Before I start, let me say that I do like to play Devil's Advocate - 
maybe I should have been a lawyer or a politician, but unfortunately, I 
have this thing called "honesty" I try to adhere to... ;-) That said, I'm 
not critical or anything, just giving another point of view here. This is 
your product, your business, and obviously, your decision. ]]

Rumor has it that Roger Taylor may have mentioned these words:
>At 05:40 PM 1/4/2009, you wrote:
>>Roger,
>>
>>I know I have hinted about this in the past, but I never saw any interest 
>>or response, either from you or others.
>>
>>You haven't given much (any?) info on what the "server" side of things is 
>>on this future CoCoNet product. You haven't mentioned what it is, what 
>>platform it runs on (Windows, I assume?), nor how it works. You also 
>>haven't mentioned if the comm protocol used will be documented and 
>>available to others?
>
>First of all, Boisy Pitre of Cloud-9 sells a product called 
>DriveWire.  CoCoNet also has virtual drives which means I have to sell at 
>a similar price to give people a fair choice.  It's not good business for 
>me to give mine away for free, or the detailed specs.

But Cloud-9 does give away 2 things: They have a freebie minimal Linux 
drivewire server under the "good luck, hope it works for you, if it doesn't 
write your own" mindset, a mindset I subscribe to as well.

More importantly, the communication protocol is wide open; so if someone 
else did choose to write a compatible server application, they're perfectly 
free to do so. I would love to write a Linux app in Python to do just that, 
but I don't have enough round-tuits built up for anything of that nature.

Cloud-9 still gets the DriveWire sale as it's the CoCo side that really has 
the "magic" - a Drivewire server application without DriveWire on the CoCo 
would be a "less than optimal" situation. ;-)

>My sales will be more in the CoCo-PC cables and the ROM Pak.  There'll be 
>people who want the LOADM'able patch whether to burn an EPROM or not, and 
>people who will make their own cables and so forth, so this leaves the 
>server app truly the only part of the product that stays in my 
>control.  I'm sure everyone can understand.

Why not charge for the LOADM'able patch? Again, I'm not nagging, just 
asking (what I think is) a valid question for the discussion.

>The CoCo side is a patch to Disk BASIC 1.1.  The server side is a small 
>app that runs under Windows.  If I were to release any technical specs or 
>protocol info this early, there wouldn't be a need to complete this 
>product because another coder could jump in and give their version before 
>I get mine out.  Yes, a Linux server could be written and I might very 
>well do that in short time or work with another Linux coder to help whip 
>one up quicker.

Now, to play the "other side of the fence" - Instead of branching the code 
solely for Linux, if you have access to a machine running a recent Linux 
distro (say, Ubuntu) - test your winders .exe under WINE on that linux. At 
least with Ubuntu, WINE is just an 'apt-get install' away if you like the 
command line, or just search for 'wine' in Synaptic if you're a GUI fan. If 
you're app runs "near flawless" just add that to your advertising scheme; 
"no warranties, but give it a try, it's at least been tested somewhat. If 
something dies, email me at xxx at yyy.zzz and let me know, I'll see if I can 
fix it." If enough people test & use it under WINE on different platforms 
and it does seem quite stable, then offer to add that as a "compatibility 
platform" for the future. If enough people are running it under WINE at 
that point, you can then see if it would behoove you to continue to test 
future code bases under WINE.

=-=-=-=

Lastly, there's always the options like: 1) Provide a known-good Linux 
programmer the comm protocol under Non-Disclosure Agreement, and if [s]he 
releases it, LART him/her legally, or 2) Have a "Hobby License" for the 
protocol of say... $250, that way you get a certain amount of profit from 
that sale, and if that person is successful in making a Linux server [s]he 
gets the profits from the sale of that server software. Put it in the Hobby 
License Contract that they can't make a Winders version.

Those are just some (prolly bad) ideas I had whilst I sit here listening to 
some old Falco...

>I carry a small 1gig USB drive in a leather case on my keychain.

"Small" is right - I bought a 2G Cruzer Micro just over 3 years ago... dang 
near $100! Now... ah... under $10. Now the 32G sticks are about $50; and 
Santa darned near put one of those in my stocking... ;-)

Again, take what I say with less than a grain of salt - I'm just rambling 
on tonite. ;-)

Laterz!
Roger "Merch" Merchberger

--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers
zmerch at 30below.com

What do you do when Life gives you lemons,
and you don't *like* lemonade?????????????