Re: Any update on Mckoi's status?

["Bayless Kirtley" <bkirt@xxxxxxx>]

Well, as users of free and open source software, we certainly would be
wrong in speaking badly about the developers or probably even the
product. As has been pointed out, times do change and people have
to adjust to those changes. If I recall, Toby originally developed McKoi
for his employer who later, graciously agreed to make it open source.
Any number of things could have happened causing both Toby and his
employer to concentrate efforts on other things even to the exclusion of
McKoi. I switched as a personal decision and have no ill feelings for
Toby or his employer. In fact, I salute them for their generosity.

Now, for the licensing concerns. GPL has certainly been an important
contribution to software development and developers. Most of us do
have to make a living though and can't distribute everything we do under
GPL. One of the most interesting features of McKoi was its ability to be
embedded entirely within another product. It was actually the first data
base I discovered with that feature. It was not needed for the major
project I was doing at the time but would have been for some smaller
things in the "thinking" stage. As for any future development on McKoi,
it would definitely be an advantage if it could be relicensed LGPL.

JMHO,
Bayless

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard S. Hall" <heavy@ungoverned.org>
To: <mckoidb@mckoi.com>
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 6:42 PM
Subject: Re: Any update on Mckoi's status?


> Alexander Molochnikov wrote:
>> I never said McKoi was "no good". Rather, I believe it is its future that 
>> is in question.
>
> Yes, I didn't mean to put words in your mouth.
>
>> I, for one, would never attempt to keep the ball rolling on something 
>> that has two licenses, one GPL, and one commercial. First, the ambiguity 
>> of licensing will have to be resolved, with the commercial license 
>> dropped. Second, I would not touch the GPLed stuff either. It is too 
>> restrictive for the third party to carry on the development, and usually 
>> is a big NO-NO in any commercial environment.
>
> Well, I am no big fan of GPL either, but there is no difficulty in 
> continuing the development of the GPL-licensed code...that is the whole 
> point of GPL. The only restriction that GPL places on people who fork is 
> that they have to keep the license GPL too. For many people, GPL is the 
> license of choice for this very "viral" reason.
>
> The dual-licensing scheme is a hedge-your-bets open source strategy by 
> many companies, when they still want to try to sell licenses. Of course, 
> many are surprised to find out that their work can still be forked if they 
> are not responsive to the community. That is why perhaps a better strategy 
> is to only open source infrastructure or middleware and keep higher level 
> services proprietary...but that is a whole other discussion.
>
>> If McKoi is to be given a new life, it would have to be rebranded as LGPL 
>> first. But with the original developers being absent, this is pretty much 
>> dead in the water.
>
> Well, you are making a statement of religion, not technology. Many people 
> prefer GPL over every other license, many people don't. I agree that this 
> could limit mckoi being embedded in other products that do not want GPL, 
> but for those that just use JDBC, they might be able to work around this.
>
> -> richard
>
>>  Alex Molochnikov
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Richard S. Hall" <heavy@ungoverned.org>
>> Date: Monday, January 28, 2008 4:37 pm
>> Subject: Re: Any update on Mckoi's status?
>> To: mckoidb@mckoi.com
>>
>> > Alexander Molochnikov wrote:
>> > > The silence is deafening...
>> > I think that is not the right way to look at it. There are lots
>> > of people that take over "dead" or "non-responsive" projects, e.g.,
>> > AtheOS->Syllable, Handbrake->MediaFork (now merged back in),
>> > Compiere->Adempiere, etc.
>> >
>> > As I said, "dead" doesn't equate to "not good", sometimes people
>> > just run out of time.
>> >
>> > -> richard
>
>
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