[OS X TeX] OT: Autotrace

[Bruno Voisin]

Le 9 avr. 07 à 23:01, Alan Litchfield a écrit :

> On 10/04/2007, at 4:18 AM, Bruno Voisin wrote:
>
>> Le 14 mars 07 à 03:16, Enrico Franconi a écrit :
>>
>>> On 14 Mar 2007, at 10:58, Bruno Voisin wrote:
>>>
>>>> - I haven't accepted the move of PortAuthority from freeware  
>>>> during development to shareware when development was completed,  
>>>> without prior notice. When the first shareware Aqua version was  
>>>> released, there was still the excuse of the availability of a  
>>>> freeware X11 version. Now the X11 version seems to be gone,  
>>>> which makes PortAuthority pure shareware. It's not the matter of  
>>>> the amount of money involved (the price of PortAuthority isn't  
>>>> big), it's a matter of principle.
>>>
>>> PortAuthority is a project which is *not* endorsed by MacPorts  
>>> (this is clearly stated when you install MacPorts). I agree with  
>>> you that this is not the ideal situation, given also that it is a  
>>> very poorly written software, and the X11 version disappeared. I  
>>> paid the fee, since it is still quite a useful GUI support.
>>
>> He's done it again !
>>
>> <http://www.codebykevin.com/phynchronicity.html>
>> <http://www.codebykevin.com/blosxom.cgi/ 
>> 2007/04/09#phynchronicity-1.0>
>> <http://www.codebykevin.com/blosxom.cgi/2007/04/09#free-competition>
>
> [...]
>
> So I've got this straight, though. Are you saying that this guy is  
> using the free software model to get other people's input into his  
> projects, then turning around and making them shareware when the  
> work is done?

I don't think that was intended from the beginning (maybe I'm just  
too naive), but yes that's how things happened for PortAuthority. The  
guy appeared one day on the (then) DarwinPorts mailing list, telling  
he was intending to use Tk/Aqua to resurrect the (then) sleepy GUI  
for DarwinPorts, called DarwinPorts Manager IIRC, and got list  
members to provide ideas for his projects, test beta versions, even  
contribute code fragments or clarifications on the inner working of  
DarwinPorts. There were many iterations, 0.1, 0.2, etc., with name  
changes from TkDarwinPorts to PortBase and PortView to DPGUI to  
PortAuthority.

But then suddenly came the final version, 1.0, released as shareware.  
The argument, I think, was that the Aqua interface took more efforts  
than originally planned; accordingly, an X11 version was also  
provided, which was free and had not required these efforts. But then  
with version 1.1 the X11 version was discontinued, and the license  
was moved from GPL to shareware.

I don't know whether things happened the same way for Fink and  
Phyncronicity. But the fact that the guy feels the need to provide an  
explanation on his blog for his business practices would incline me  
to think they did.

Bruno Voisin
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