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=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!mx02.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!gandalf.srv.welterde.de!news.jacob-sparre.dk!loke.jacob-sparre.dk!pnx.dk!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Randy Brukardt" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: GNAT GPL is not shareware Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2015 14:36:27 -0600 Organization: Jacob Sparre Andersen Research & Innovation Message-ID: References: <0Kgqw.953330$_k.685364@fx16.iad> <199c826a-923e-497f-a8e2-9e732c8a5665@googlegroups.com> <87bnmetex4.fsf@ludovic-brenta.org> <4ae7f0d5-d681-4be9-95bc-b5e789b3ad40@googlegroups.com> <87tx06rve6.fsf@ludovic-brenta.org> <87lhlirpk0.fsf@ludovic-brenta.org> <4984c229-bdcd-4032-bd88-cde66482e6df@googlegroups.com> <6950687c-7b03-440e-ba15-e1092f86a3d0@googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: rrsoftware.com X-Trace: loke.gir.dk 1422995787 16555 24.196.82.226 (3 Feb 2015 20:36:27 GMT) X-Complaints-To: news@jacob-sparre.dk NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2015 20:36:27 +0000 (UTC) X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5931 X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Original X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.6157 Xref: news.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:24859 Date: 2015-02-03T14:36:27-06:00 List-Id: "Jedi Tek'Unum" wrote in message news:c5fe4081-ed33-40f4-a5a5-5c9d44744c45@googlegroups.com... On Monday, February 2, 2015 at 2:44:20 PM UTC-6, Randy Brukardt wrote: ... >I suppose I'm now considered outdated Yup. :-) >...but when something isn't available for Solaris something is wrong. Nothing is available for Solaris. :-) I don't know why anyone would bother making anything for a dead system. How do you get tax software or bookkeeping software or any of the other things that one needs to do on a computer? My home computer runs Windows 98. I don't complain that nothing new runs on it anymore. :-) We started a version for SunOS once, but that never went anywhere. So these days Janus/Ada is only available on Windows. I'd like to have it on Linux and possibly OSX, but I really see no point in anything else for a host. (Targets of course are a different issue.) >> Can't even imagine what you mean by this. Ada, as tool, will never make >> as >> much money as less professional languages. That's because you can't sell >> ongoing maintance to fix software that works right (and thus doesn't need >> to >> be fixed). > >So Ada kills itself then? Dies a slow death, pretty much like everything else worthwhile. >> AdaCore is doing the only thing that makes sense to monitize Ada. If >> there >> was any other way that made sense, my guess is that AdaCore would have >> tried >> it already. > >And that is the problem. A programming language largely controlled by one >company that needs to monetize it. Ada has never been "controlled by" one company. It's controlled by the Ada standard, which has been independently maintained since it was originally created. Perhaps it bothers you that all of the Ada implementations were created by commercial companies that are trying to make money. But it's rather un-American to be against capitalism. :-) >Seems that Sun was able to create Java and monetize it Really? The primary reason Sun went out of business was that they couldn't monetize Java enough for investors. They had to sell at a fire sale price to Oracle. > (even more so with Oracle). Everything I read suggests that Oracle has done more harm than good for the stuff that they acquired from Sun. They killed off OpenOffice and several other such products by trying to extract money -- they ended up forked or disappeared. Java survives in spite of Oracle's monitization attempts, not because of it. >Yet I can still use it for my own development for free. And you get what you pay for. :-) > (Same for Solaris.) Free for non-commercial uses is a perfect balance > and it works. Yeah, because there is no such thing as a "non-commercial" use that matters. Such users would never have bought the software in the first place. But almost all projects of interest at least have the potential for becoming commercial. And then what? You either have to change to something else or pay $$$$. Nice bait-and-switch. At least with the GPL you know the score going in. > Linux is free yet lots of companies seem to be making a lot of money > on it. I just don't believe that there isn't a way that can work for > everyone. I don't see it. It's not like I haven't tried to find such a way. I'd like to make more money than a bus driver, but I don't see how short of giving up on doing things right and taking a C job. >> Sadly, I don't think there is much future for doing things well, because >> for >> that one can neither sell maintenance nor get much effort for >> improvement. >> Which ultimately leads to a bleak future for humanity, IMHO. > >Agreed. So how can we fix it? Kill all the marketers? :-) I don't think it can be fixed. You can't stuff this genie back in the bottle. Randy.