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000294_news@columbia.edu_Mon Sep 4 19:16:22 1995.msg
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Path: news.columbia.edu!panix!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!spool.mu.edu!agate!news.duke.edu!news-server.ncren.net!concert!ais.com!bruce
From: bruce@ais.com
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.kermit.misc
Subject: Re: Windows 95 version
Message-Id: <1995Sep5.001622.8668@ais.com>
Date: 5 Sep 95 00:16:22 EST
References: <41vhn3$aeq@mikasa.iol.it> <1995Aug30.001315.22366@mercury.ncat.edu> <DE93Gn.75H@world.std.com>
Organization: Applied Information Systems, Chapel Hill, NC
Lines: 61
Apparently-To: kermit.misc@watsun.cc.columbia.edu
In article <DE93Gn.75H@world.std.com>, jeffb@world.std.com (Jeffrey T Berntsen) writes:
> jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris) writes:
>>hounsell@cc.joensuu.fi (Paul Hounsell) writes:
>
>>> I really wish the developers would re-consider about doing a
>>>true GUI version of kermit that could be ported to Windows.
>
>>See today's KERMIT news from Frank da Cruz: Kermit 95 will be out later
>>this year. That's the good news; the bad news is that it won't be freeware
>>like the older KERMIT packages from Columbia. Frank estimated the street
>>price to be US$54; bulk, site, and academic pricing is being worked out.
>
>>I don't really like having to pay for it (or anything else, for that
>>matter) but it's difficult to argue with Frank's quite valid point that
>>everybody seems to be using KERMIT and few people are paying Columbia
>>anything for it. Idealism is fine, but somehow you've got to get enough
>>money to pay the bills. I spent twenty years in academia and I'm too
>>painfully aware of funding problems.
>
> All true, and I can see your and Frank's point. I still don't have to like
> it though. I think this charging for a version of kermit instead of its
> media (such as the kermit tapes available from Columbia) or its documentation
> is going to earn KERMIT, Columbia U., and Frank a great deal of ill will in
> the user community.
I disagree. I think most people realize that you don't usually get
anything for free, and that the network community was very fortunate
to have people as dedicated as Frank and others who put out what
amounted to free software.
The alternatives to this were probably either to shut down the Kermit
effort entirely, or to convert it to some kind of groupware effort
like the Linux project. In either case Columbia University would be
out of the picture as far as any kind of support goes; and Frank
would not be available for user support at anywhere near the level
he has been, if he would be available at all. Is this what everyone
wants? Is anyone being forced to upgrade? (Kermit 3.14 works perfectly
well under Windows 95 except that you can't have both the Windows 95
TCP/IP stack and the Kermit TCP/IP stack active at once).
Personally I think this is a much better approach to providing funding
for the Kermit project than what I think was the rather ill-advised
effort to have Kermit 3.* removed from BBSes and CD-ROMs. _That_
generated considerable ill will because it all seemed so peculiar:
`You can use this software for free as long as you get it from our
FTP site, but you can't put it on a CD or a BBS.' The only effects I
could see were that this might reduce the total number of Kermit users
and make those who still used it put even more load on the Columbia
FTP sites (therefore requiring more support hardware...). At the time
I suggested that perhaps Kermit 3.* should be converted to shareware (I
bought the book, but how many others did? Apparently not enough), but
I know there are some legal questions about whether that's possible;
and whether for that reason or for other reasons, Columbia did not think
it in their interest to do so.
I hope this solves Kermit's funding problems; maybe they'll even be
able to provide more enhancements with the additional revenue. I wish
Frank and Columbia University good luck with their venture; I know I'll
be getting a copy of it.
Bruce C. Wright