From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,ac39a12d5faf5b14 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-04-20 17:57:03 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail From: dewar@gnat.com (Robert Dewar) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Development process in the Ada community Date: 20 Apr 2002 17:57:02 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Message-ID: <5ee5b646.0204201657.3f26f187@posting.google.com> References: <5ee5b646.0204200830.2bd258d2@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.232.38.14 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1019350623 18715 127.0.0.1 (21 Apr 2002 00:57:03 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 21 Apr 2002 00:57:03 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:22844 Date: 2002-04-21T00:57:03+00:00 List-Id: tmoran@acm.org wrote in message news:... > and considering the "give > it away for free, charge a bundle for support" model for > GPL product funding. That model requires that you do > support only for cash Well perhaps some software is sold on that model, I am not sure what but that's certainly not the Ada Core Technologies model. We provide licensed copyrighted software bundled with support (a not unusual model). Yes, there are some public versions of GNAT, but they are, from the point of view of our customer base, quite different. (warning remember that I have a definite interest in the success of ACT, so read the following with that in mind, just as you need to remember that Tom Moran is involved in commercial products that are to some extent competitive with ACT, and which have a very different model). If a customer gets GNAT Pro, they are getting a software product that is fully backed by our company. They know that it has been extensively tested, They know that it is properly licensed (a real concern for many users, since you never really know the license situation of stuff you download from miscellaneous places). They know that ACT will stand behind the product, and they know that ACT support is unusual in that they have immediate access to our entire engineering staff, for help not only with problems with GNAT Pro, but general problems and questions in the use of Ada and bring their projects to a successful conclusion. Ada Core Technologies is definitely not in the business of giving things away! > ignoring any latent feelings of obligation to stand > behind your programming. We definitely stand behind GNAT Pro, and will make sure that users of GNAT Pro are successful in their use of this product. >From time to time we make public binaries available, and we make the sources available at gnu.org, and we do this because we think it is generally advantageous to the Ada community, but this is done on the basis that there is no support from us. If people find that worrisome, they should stay away from unsupported software, but for students and hobbyists and academic researchers, it is often quite acceptable to use unsupported software, and we hope that the public versions of GNAT will be helpful. What some people seem to be saying is "Hey you shouldn't make this stuff public, unless you are willing to stand behind it and support it!" Well that's not the way the world works. There is no free lunch here. If some philanthropist wants to make a significant donation to support the binary version, then that would change things. So if we really thought people agreed with this quote, we would have to react by simply not making it available (remember that the GPL never forces ACT or anyone else to distribute anything). That would be too bad, and in fact we know perfectly well that the great majority of users of the public version understand the situation exactly. Indeed, the criticisms often come from competitors who definitely do NOT make their software available, so you have to wonder :-) > > The GPL is merely a software license that gives users > > of your software > > more rights ... > Different, not More. A set of rights is not o > one-dimensional with an > obvious ordering. I disagree in this case, my specific comparison was with the Microsoft license, and it is clear that the GPL and GMGPL as used by Ada Core Technologies gives you absolutely *ALL* the rights you get from Microsoft, plus a whole lot more. Indeed I would be very surprised to see any license from any seller of proprietary software that was not a subset of the rights you have with GNAT Pro. Robert Dewar Ada Core Technologies