A Philosophical Point

[Bill]

I have always admired the public domain software community. I think the
stuff on source forge is excellent and everybody knows the story of Apache
and how even IBM's engineers came to use it. But everyone of those projects
released under the GNU license that have gotten really successful spun off
some kind of money-making business. Look at Red Hat Linux. But there are
still people working with Linux and add-ons for it and programs for it that
are released under GNU even though Red Hat is making money. The same thing
is true for Apache. It is public domain but there are plenty of servers with
an Apache core that are sold and making everyone's software experience
richer. Please don't feel betrayed because RunRev has to make a living. I
hope instead that you will keep making some incredible additions to RunRev
that we can all enjoy released to the public domain but also use the
reputation you gain from the release of that software to make some money
yourself also programming with RunRev.

I think it will help if you look at incredible software as an enriching
empowerment experience for the people that get to use it and to realize that
for most people whether it is free or cost less than $200 makes very little
difference.


On 4/26/05 5:05 PM, "Mathewson" <richmond at mail.maclaunch.com> wrote:

> I recently completed a Master's thesis at the University of
> Abertay, Dundee.
> It was mainly concerned with designing a new Graphic User
> Interface for computers (and may be read, in its entirety,
> on my website at http://members.maclaunch.com/richmond),
> and had at its heart a prototype developed using a version
> of Runtime Revolution. The reason I chose to use Runtime
> Revolution was based largely on the fact that I have 12
> years of experience using what has come to be called
> 'xTalk' but when I started was called 'HyperTalk'.
> 
> While I believe that Runtime Revolution produce an
> extremely good programming interface that uses a dialect of
> 'xTalk' I have a major philosophical disagreement with
> them, of which many people who work with Runtime Revolution
> are aware, but may not realise the reasons for.
> 
> On Friday 22 April I went to Sofia to the Webtech
> conference and listened to Richard Stallman for close on
> two hours. Dr Stallman's message was clear (and is well
> known in programming circles), and for the first time I
> heard somebody else say things that echoed, to a large
> extent, my own ideas.
> 
> About 4 years ago I downloaded Runtime Revolution 1 and
> started to play with it; over a period of time I developed
> a wide variety of 'widgets' that I either uploaded to their
> user site or made available through my own website.
> 
> During this time I developed a complete interactive CD-ROM
> for an educational company based in St Andrews (Scotland);
> my employer bought me the Runtime Revolution 1.1.1 manuals.
> In working on this CD-ROM I developed various bits-and-bobs
> that I spun off as 'widgets' made freely available via the
> internet.
> 
> This culminated in my designing a complex extended toolbar
> for Runtime Revolution 2. At no time did I ask for any
> money for these contributions, and never tried to exercise
> any copyright control. This was based on the fact that
> Runtime Revolution was available as a free download that
> could be used in a relatively unrestricted way without
> having to pay for it. When Runtime Revolution released
> version 2.0.3 the company suddenly removed that freedom and
> beyond a 30 day 'trial license' expected payment. I felt
> betrayed and said so, forcefully; for which I was slammed,
> forcefully.  I subsequently stopped making widgets I
> developed available via my website.
> 
> I expect there are a large number of people who felt sad
> about the end of a free version of Runtime Revolution ?
> although nobody else went so far as to state that.
> 
> What Runtime Revolution has done has ensured that their
> product will only be used by commercial developers (i.e.
> those who can pay), and stifled a whole section of the
> programming community who would otherwise have contributed
> to the growth of the product.
> 
> For my masters thesis I used Runtime Revolution 2.0.1 ? the
> last free version. None of the free versions are available
> for download any more.
> 
> John Richmond Mathewson. 27 April 2005
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> The Think Different Store
> http://www.thinkdifferentstore.com/
> For All Your Mac Gear
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> _______________________________________________
> use-revolution mailing list
> use-revolution at lists.runrev.com
> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
> 
> 

            |    |    |
           )_)  )_)  )_)
          )___))___))___)\
         )____)____)_____)\\
       _____|____|____|____\\\__
-------\                   /--------- http://www.bluewatermaritime.com
 ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  ^^^^      ^^^^     ^^^    ^^
       ^^^^      ^^^

24 hour cell: (787) 378-6190
fax: (787) 809-8426

Blue Water Maritime
P.O. Box 91
Puerto Real, PR 00740