Re: Tools

[Dragi Raos]

From: "Derek Neighbors" <address@hidden>

> We can agree to disagree. Strong commercial interests means no sense
of
> community.  (read they will screw you at first chance they have to
make
> money)  Generally corporations like this put out 'dead' product to
hope
> some one carries it, or they hope to attract folks to get them 'buy'
> something they need that is not free.  (i.e. bait them)

> I cant speak for motivations here, not saying they have any, but on
the
> whole it appears that they fit the mold of those before them that have
> operated this way.

Prolifics' motive was simply to raise visibility of their commercial
product. I do have some insider knowledge here, but that's irrelevant.
What counts is whether *we* (OSS community) have something to gain from
using and developing POSSL. I think we do.

> Certainly one could take the code and make a fork and avoid many of
the
> worries, but that just isnt playing nice either.

POSSL already is a fork (as I mentioned, it is Panther 4.28 and
Prolifics isn't touching it any more; the commercial product moved on -
not in any essential way, but certainly in versions of other people's
stuff (DBs, middleware) it supports). What I would like to see is using
it as basis for a larger OSS tool effort - perhaps by interfacing it
with other goodies out there.

Cheers!

Bonzi