Re: x is dead - non-free
On 4 Apr 1998 john@dhh.gt.org wrote:
> > Stop!
>
> Stop what?
Not you, the "panic".
>
> > XFree will ALWAYS be free.
>
> Yes, of course it will. 'X', however, refers to 'The X Window System',
> which is a registered trademark of TOG. X11R6.4 will be the next release
> of X, and it will not be free. Doesn't matter much, though, because we
> have XFree. I thought I made that clear.
Yeah, I just read the license agreement for R6.4 and it pretty much sucks.
If I want to make R6.4 available to my customers, I must pay $7500 every
year and I can only provide them with binaries. They can receive no
source. What Debian COULD do is pay the $7500 to Open Group and provide
50,000 copies of X11R6.4 in binary form (as .deb packages) for $1 each
providing a potential income of $42,500 to the project.
If I wanted to install Debian with R6.4 at a commercial operation, I would
have to obtain "Commercial Debian" and pay the extra $1 for the X binary
distribution. I would still be able to obtain (for free) the source
code for my use at home, I just would not be able to distribute any
binaries I produce with it unless I pay the $7500. Looks like, if they
wanted to, Debian could join the group and distribute the binaries for
commercial use at a low price.
I am not against commercial software, I am against crappy commercial
software. If R6.4 is good and if it can be obtained for a few bucks, I
would use it. Heck, I am almost tempted to fork out the $7500 and offer
binary packages.
George Bonser
Just be thankful that Microsoft does not manufacture pharmaceuticals.
http://www.debian.org
Debian/GNU Linux ... the maintainable operating system.
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