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- From: dwex@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (david.e.wexelblat)
- Subject: Re: Free software and the future of support for Diamond products
- Organization: AT&T
- Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1992 21:01:59 GMT
- Message-ID: <1992Sep6.210159.18607@cbnewsj.cb.att.com>
- Keywords: Diamond, free-software
- References: <1992Sep3.162413.19770@cbnewsj.cb.att.com> <eaVY02MJ20P.01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com>
- Lines: 46
-
- In article <eaVY02MJ20P.01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> gab10@griffincd.amdahl.com (Gary A Browning) writes:
- > What is XFree86's feeling about negotiating the distribution of a very
- > small binary library with their release that contains just the
- > Diamond Configuration routines. This would not be any more reverse
- > engineerable than the ROM supplied with the video cards, it allows the
- > server to still be distributed in source form, and it keeps a lot of
- > Diamond's current and future customers happy.
- >
- > For those users that do not have one of these cards, they get complete
- > source code. For those that do have the cards, they get complete source
- > code except for the Video Card Clock Configuration routine.
- >
- > It the longer term, my guess is that the Diamond policy will change when
- > its competators release their cards. At this point the source could be
- > included.
- > --
- > Gary Browning | Exhilaration is that feeling you get just after a
- > | great idea hits you, and just before you realize
- > | what is wrong with it.
-
-
- I should have covered this topic in the initial posting.
-
- We discussed this possibility and decided that we have no desire to
- enter the legal tangle involved in signing the non-disclosures that would
- be involved. I, for one, could not sign such an agreement, given my
- current employment status. And the others are not willing to take
- on the responsibility. So this will not happen.
-
- We are sorry if there are people who can't use our software, but we are
- not in business. We are a bunch of hackers putting something together
- in our spare time, using our own financial resources to do it. We can't
- be all things to all people.
-
- So until Diamond changes their policies, we will not go to any effort
- to support them. We are already expending more effort to try to get
- data to use to get them to change their policy than some of us think
- should be expended.
-
- That's the way it is, and that's the way it will remain.
-
- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
- David Wexelblat | dwex@mtgzfs3.att.com | Somebody get me a
- AT&T Bell Laboratories | ...!att!mtgzfs3!dwex | cheeseburger!
- 200 Laurel Ave - 4B-421 | |
- Middletown, NJ 07748 | (908) 957-5871 | --Steve Miller Band
-