Re: [MiNT] old KGMD or new NMD?

[bernd.ebert@iorio.de (Bernd Ebert)]

On Thu, 4 Feb 1999 18:35:33 -0500 (EST), Katherine Ellis wrote:

> On Thu, 4 Feb 1999, Bernd Ebert wrote:
> 
> > 2. "MiNT'98": A new MiNT-Distribution complete with Installation-Scripts
> >    (a bit similar to the old KGMD-Scripts) and with a graphical Administration-
> >    Software (Web-Based with CGI-Scripts). Also there is big bunch of new 
> >    Software ported especially for this Distribution (Samba, the new 
> >    nfs-server, and more). Currently we (Torsten Lang and me) are working 
> >    on getting an language-independend Version out. MiNT'98 (we will change 
> >    this name) is mainly intended for easily installable Network-Support, but 
> >    it is also a full featured MiNT-Distribution including Web-Servers, Samba,
> >    named, Proxy.....
> >    MiNT'98 is a commercial release, because of the effort we had to put into
> >    the graphical administration system. In fact this and some Networking-Drivers
> >    for Milan, Hades and Panther are the only parts which are not allowed to
> >    be copied.
> hm sorro to hear that. That goes against all what MiNT and unix spirit is
> about basically.

No. Its just the same like every linux-distribution. If you are downloading
the redhat-distribution you are missing some gimmicks like the X-Metro-Server
etc.

> You sell the cd, fine, get money out of it, fine etc. no prob.
> But not able to redistribute part of it because of effort you put into, or
> whatever other reason on a ftp server is not fair.
> Do you think mint dev like Frank with all those hours are not as valuable
> as mint98?

Definitely not. In fact, Frank was one of our Beta-Testers and got a free copy.
Your reaction is the reason why I didn't ask for beta-testers on this list.

> the cd should be payable, of course, no doubt on that. But the
> distribution imo, shouldn't.

The Distribution _is_ allowed to be copied. The only archive you can't copy
is the administration-software.

> Like stupid things like kemd (only translation, and rework VERY tiny part,
> experienced many times, taking notes, install it like 5 times in a row,
> basically 3 months doing only that. I don't expect any money on that. So
> imagine Knarf! or all the real workers.

As I said before, the Distribution itself is not copyrighted. I started to
develop this mint-Distribution at October 1997. It was finished in August
1998. A bit more than 3 months. about 80% of the effort went into porting
and bug-fixing a lot of Software (remember the new mintnet-releases, the
new nfs-server, samba, the bug-fixed nfs-client, name-server and so on).
All these bits where released (after all I wouldn't be allowed to hold them
back).

> Anyway, i am kinda deceived to learn that some part of mint98 are
> copyrighted.

As I said only the administration-Software and some drivers that are not
part of the distribution itself but part of some contributed software, like
for e.g. applixware on suse-distributions or metro-x on redhat-distributions.

> We already don't have a lot of drivers, so if for the few we can have, we
> actuially still can't because of some copyrights decided on the amount of
> hours. hm.

First of all, these drivers where developed by Torsten Lang and second:
Do you imagine What financial efford was behind developing this whole stuff?
Whe had to make sure that this distribution runs on every Hardware we know,
so I had to get my hands on a milan and a tt, torsten bought a hades and
a milan (We are living about 300 kilometers from each other, so one Machine
simply wasn't enough).
Also we need to provide support for our customers, since MiNT'98 is mainly
intended for People with no (or not much) expirience with unix or mint.

> linux, netbsd, if you have the time, the energy, the money to get it from
> an ftp site, It is all encouraged. Most of the people just get the CD.
> Much easier to handle. Sometimes cheaper than hours of download. And much
> more handy when reinstalling X many times.

True, but as I said if you are buying the cd you don't pay for the distribution
itself but for the support and the gimmicks on the cd (like for e.g. a 
backup-utility on dld-distribution).

Greetings,
			Bernd