RE: [tuxracer-main] Re: Tuxracer 1.0

[Sam M. <sam...@ma...>]

 
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Let me start off that I wasn't trying to slam sunspire too hard.
Racers is a hoot to play. I also find it hard to believe that in all
the releases of tr that only 2 user patches were accepted. What I
would have liked to see is a gpl 1.0, with say reduced content, and a
commercial version with more levels etc etc. Consider many of the
addition to 1.0 were probably inspired from user and list feedback
that is what dissapoints me a bit more than anything, that those
werent incoporated into a gpl version. There is a gpl fork called
open racer on sourceforge, that is starting to get some work done on
it. I guess I'll get off my horse and continue on my quest for good
gpl games for my son. Not that I have any interest in playing games
hehe.. This is just not nice, and dissapointing as you said.

Sam


- -----Original Message-----
From: tux...@li...
[mailto:tux...@li...] On Behalf Of Steve
Baker
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 3:22 PM
To: tux...@li...
Subject: Re: [tuxracer-main] Re: Tuxracer 1.0


Sam Mayes wrote:

> I concur completely. I was wondering how sunspire could actually 
> sanitize the code etc.

They claim that there have only *ever* been two patches to the code
submitted and accepted from non-SunSpire employees.

I find that very suprising given the LONG history of this mailing
list.  Someone should go though the archives and check that claim - I
don't have the energy.

> They should have started over with a different
> game. I for one wont buy this game. And Im making sure friends get 
> these posts so they can make up their minds aswell. It is truly
> sad,  as I have bought every loki game, trying to encourage more of
> the  same. This just leaves a bad taste in my mout. Its really too
> bad, as  my 9 year old loves this game.

Well, it's not quite *that* bad.

SunSpire cannot take away the GPL rights from the earlier versions of
TuxRacer (0.61 if my mind serves me right) - so we can still
distribute it freely, re-use parts of it in other programs, improve
it, etc.

Hence, we really havn't *lost* anything other than the support of the
people at SunSpire (who will presumably not contribute code to the
0.61 branch).

Anyone who wishes to improve the 0.61 version still can - it is still
(and will always be) under GPL.

As always though, hijacking GPL'ed code into a commercial product
tends to result in an improved version of the code that *some* people
will buy. That reduces the interest and status of the free
version...which is why the GPL is written the way it is.

There have been many cases though of the GPL'ed fork of a product
like this going on to be much more successful than the original.

Whatever happened to the commercial versions of EMACS, SSH and Xfree?
Nobody uses them because the free version is actually better.

As I said before, I'm not against commercial programs (especially
games), but taking a GPL'ed game out of the public domain is really
not a nice thing to do.

- ----------------------------- Steve Baker
- -------------------------------
Mail : <sjb...@ai...>   WorkMail: <sj...@li...>
URLs : http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
       http://plib.sf.net http://tuxaqfh.sf.net http://tuxkart.sf.net
       http://prettypoly.sf.net http://freeglut.sf.net
       http://toobular.sf.net   http://lodestone.sf.net

_______________________________________________
tuxracer-main mailing list
tux...@li...
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/tuxracer-main

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGPfreeware 7.0.3 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com>

iQA/AwUBO9bz3RmQblmJlwviEQJdrwCfWzhGPX8HVrZQjEhQJWIkHvsNmvEAoOAP
jcD1gdRcG7FIIv6iKsEzBW4e
=WjuG
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----