[dragging together three responses, in an attempt to reduce list clutter] > What's wrong with selling binaries? Lots, IMO, but that's a rant for another list. What bothered me in this case is not so much that someone is selling binaries - I'm fairly inured to that by now - but rather (a) that someone posted that ad to bugtraq and (b) the binaries in question are a program one _must_ trust highly, and as if that weren't enough, from a relative unknown. > As for the suspicion of binaries, I dont see anyone not running Iftp > or Itelnet binaries because "I dont have src code". Me. I run a vendor binary OS on my machine because I have no choice at present; the next machine I buy will run a full source-on-hand system, and nothing I can't recompile will go near it. Nothing _new_ goes on even my current machine that I don't have source to. >> Is bugtraq a place for ads? [...] > Chris did not post this announcement to the list. I know - someone else did. I still think bugtraq is not an appropriate place for ads, even when they're advertising someone else's thing. If the person who posted it had said, instead, something like "there's this thing called ISS, here's a five-line summary, mail me [or mail iss@wherever.it.was] for the full blurb", I wouldn't've squawked. > I guess [Chris] didnt feel it appropriate to advertise his own > product here. Good for him - I don't think it's appropriate either. der Mouse mouse@collatz.mcrcim.mcgill.edu