Looking at the LyX web site (thinking of upcoming release) I notice that the LyX licence isn't mentioned other than "open source". Shouldn't there be a front page link to the licence info?
Then, it says "a slightly modified GPL" which in my understanding no longer applies. Contributers -> Contributors I used to like the text on the front page -- "LyX is what?!" -- but now looking at it again, I am struck by the technical nature of the text. LyX is described as the sum of its nuts and bolts as much as by its capabilities. I think capabilities, the problems it was designed to solve, should come here, and the nuts and bolts only later. Remember, this is the place where we "sell" -- or fail to sell -- LyX. People "buy" solutions, not code or gadgets. (I've been reading Karl Fogel's "Producing Open Source Software". :) What about "LyX is an advanced open source (GPL v.2, link) document processor that encourages an approach to writing based on the structure of your documents, not their appearance. "LyX was written for people that write and want their writing to look great, out of the box. No more endless tinkering with formatting details, 'finger painting' font attributes or futzing around with page boundaries. You just write. In the background, LyX's legendary LaTeX typesetting engine makes _you_ look good. "LyX is stable and fully featured. It is a multi-platform, fully internationalized application running natively on Unix/Linux and the Macintosh and modern Windows platforms." And later on: "On screen, LyX looks like any word processor; its printed output -- or richly cross-referenced PDF, just as readily produced -- looks like nothing else. Gone are the days of industrially bland .docs, all looking similarly not-quite-right, yet coming out unpredictably different on different printer drivers. Gone are the crashes 'eating' your dissertation the evening before going to press. "LyX was written for scientists by scientists, and it shows, in world-class support for math and structured document creation. Such staples of scientific authoring as reference list and index creation come standard. But _you_ don't have to be a scientist: with LyX you create just as easily a letter or a novel or a theatre play or film script. A broad array of ready, well designed document layouts and style modification and feature support packages are built in." Is this an idea? - Martin
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