🚀 go-pugleaf

vinsci@brando.uwasa.fi (Leonard Norrgard) writes:
> mathew (mathew@mantis.co.uk) wrote:
>> vinsci@brando.uwasa.fi (Leonard Norrgard) writes:
>> > Unfortunately, I have to use a hoarded X display every day at work.
>> > The makers of it won't give us sources so we could fix the bugs
>> > ourselves.
>> 
>> So why the hell did you buy the damn thing?
> 
> I wasn't working here at the time they considered X displays.  If I
> were, I'd tried to negotiate better support into the deal or enough
> technical info to be able to support these things on our own.

So your organization made a stupid decision.  Surely that's their lookout?
Why should everyone have their freedom restricted just to protect your
organization from the consequences of the decisions it makes?

> If X had been under the GPL, the manufacturer *would have to* give me
> the source.

More likely, if X had been under the GPL, the manufacturer wouldn't have
adapted it to run on his hardware, and nor would many other manufacturers. 
You'd probably be running OpenLook or NeWS, with no hope of any sort of
source, let alone source tailored to your machine.

>> Sounds to me like people have bothered to patch FSF software to work on your
>> system, but they haven't bothered to patch the free X to work on your system. 
>> So what?  There's nothing stopping you from patching X to run on your system,
>> or paying someone else to do it.
> 
> You see, there actually is something stopping me, or I would have done
> it already.  Namely, the manufacturer doesn't give out the necessary
> hardware information either, effectively blocking that path.

Again, if you buy undocumented hardware, what do you expect?

If you want special restrictive licenses to save you from the consequences of
your organization's actions, let's go the whole hog.  Let's include a section
in the GPL demanding that anyone who distributes GPL code must port it to any
other system on demand, free of charge.  Then people who buy hardware that
nobody supports won't have to face the consequences of their stupidity.

You'll never have to worry about what hardware to buy.  You'll just buy what
you like, and someone will just *have* to give you ported patched source
code appropriate for your system, right?

>>  What, you mean you didn't take that cost
>> into account when buying the system?
> 
> Nice try.  The support we have to buy now costs more than it would
> cost us to port X ourselves (my estimation).  By the way, the
> manufacturer is Digital Equipment Corp. (who participated in
> developing the original free X), and the product is their VXT 2000
> X-terminal.

If the support costs are that high, it must be cheaper to sell off all the
DEC hardware second hand and replace it with something better.  Or at least
something that you know what it does.


mathew