[openbeos] Re: OpenBeOS in competition with BeOS

Well, I'll try to asnwer the best I can on all these questions.

> what happens if Palm says "Ok, Group X, you are awarded a licence
> to develop and market the BeOS"?

Nothing. The problem is that we want BeOS, but we want it to be Open, 
as in Open-source, even Free-software, that is so every one can contribute
without any NDA stuff bullet. Even if Palm says yes to licencing that will 
be a good thing, but that is _not_ what we want. In order for us to do things
in common Palm will hae to go deeper in the openess.

> Do you see your project as an "upfront help", which would allow
> Group X to utilize/integrate work done by OpenBeOS in order to
> replace licenced code in the BeOS, making it a) easier and
> quicker to improve the OS and b) less dependent on licenced code?

This can be. Anyway myself and others I think will be very disapointed if they
see that their work is 'sucked' into the real BeOS and therer is nothing in
return. I mean 'b)' is not sufficient for me. If it is meant as a step on the 
path to make BeOS FREE (as in the GPL), so I'd even better join and even sign
an NDA to help removing all the stuff then reinplement it using open-source 
software. Because Open-BeOS is born endorsing the fact that Palm would never 
open-source BeOS and that we wanted to do it ourselve. If They want to do, then
FINE ! This will save us the coding of all the stuff that could have been open
-sourced from the BeOs and that we would have to recode because we don't have 
access to it !

But I'm not sure you really understand all the issues on 
Open-Source/Free-Software. It only works it the flow is bidirectionnal 
(well it works better).
I mean that we won't prevent anyone from using what we code, but depending on
the licence chosen we can't enforce you to get back to us what you have done 
with it (only the GPL requires it. some argue this makes it a virus...)

Basically I see those possible paths:

* Palm doesn't deal with you.
This means we were right and we will do what we planned.

* Palm deals with you and you get a licence to _use_ and _market_ BeOs only
Same way.

* Palm grants you a licence to market and _develop_ BeOS still keeping it
proprietary
Doesn't change anything for us, since we won't get anything back from the
original BeOS.
For you that means: you will be able to use things we produce, BUT thins won't
help you much sicne all you will get is things you already have working in the
real BeOS because we will be stucked in reimplementing it from scratch.
And since we agreed not to use the GPL you even won't be forced to get anything 
back to us.

* Palm grants you a licence to market, develop, get rid of the licenced code
and _work_to_finaly_get_BeOS to_an_Open-source_licence (anyone, IMO I'd prefer
 GPL, but...)
Here OpenBeOS will maybe even don't have to exist anymore because it's our
goal !
In that case, I'll join _immediately_ even if I have to sign an NDA on the
licenced code that needs to be ripped and replaced.



> I am asking because the last thing we need in our discussions
> with Palm is a split front with various initiatives and diverted
> developer attention. We should stand up united and show Palm that
> not only do we WANT to do this, but that we are also capable of
> doing it PROFESSIONALLY.

I want it too.

> Part of the deal with Palm should in any case be to get rid of
> any licenced code in the BeOS and to replace it with "free" code.

As I said if this happens, sign me !

> But the crucial bit - as you all know - hasn't been the technical
> side of the BeOS, but the marketing side. What's your take on
> this? How do you plan to market and support OpenBeOS? At the end
> of the day there will be marketers, financers, admin folks who
> need to get paid (usually quite well), and should money come in
> from the sale of BeOS (it has to in order to pay the bills), the
> developers should be rewarded too.

There I see you don't understant what we want to do.
We don't want to _market_ BeOS but _make_it_free_
We won't get paid for that (or if you want to pay us, well I'm glad to 
hear from you)
We do it because it seemed that _noone_else_ wanted to do it, not because 
we want money back from that. It's purely ethical, not political nor economical

> Now are you willing to do all this work for -say- Group X or what
> is your objective? Do you want to base it all on NewOS? If so,
> what is your time horizon for release and such?

As I already said _if_ Palm want BeOS to go open-source, then I (don't want to
speak for others), will be glad to join, even if not getting paid.
In this case I think we will be able to get all the licenced stuff out from
BeOS and reimplement it using parts of NewOS, AtheOS, *BSD, Linux and others.

> Please don't get me wrong; I am asking out of ignorance and need
> enlightenment, also so that I can give Palm the right answers in
> case they ask. 

Hope you now have a little light.

> I think the efforts are laudable but they need to be smart and
> coordinated too, because otherwise we might do the BeOS more
> damage than good, and the last thing I want is get a licence from
> Palm with access to all the source code only to "compete" with
> OpenBeOS and to vie for eyeballs, downloads and developer
> resources.

The first thing I want _is_ a licence to the code _in_order_to_make_it_free,
else there is no point in it for us.


François.

Other related posts: