Marius,
I see that you have taken SZ's (from Faststream Technologies) comments
to represent the views of the ICS community in general, or the purpose
of Francois Piette's website in particular. I understand your
frustration, as his comments weren't too nice to begin with, and I
apologize for his accusations.
Let me clear up, if I may, a few things. First, ICS is freeware,
offered by Francois Piette for free, with complete source code. The
only thing Francois has asked in return is a picture postcard of your
city or country, as he collects them. The OverByte web site (which
belongs to Francois), offers many free components and programs created
by Francois and other members of the ICS community.
Second, Francois also has some proprietary components, which are not
freeware, that he also offers on his web site. These are the MidWare
components, geared towards enterprises looking to build multi-tiered
applications.
Third, having a real job, Francois uses his personal spare time to
maintain the ICS components and to offer support to our community,
participating in this mailing list. Just as many of us volunteers do.
Now, about the ICS-SSL components. For many years some members have
been asking for an SSL implementation of ICS, but Francois didn't have
the time to work on it. Since everyone understood that this was a big
project, it was decided that he will dedicate his efforts to this goal
if he could be compensated. During the past few years, many developers
have participated in this project, some offering engineering assistance,
others offering bug patches, and still others just testing the
components. There is a separate mailing list dedicated to this effort.
Notice that this is a special project, not part of the Internet
Component Suite (ICS) distribution, which is still freeware. Moreover,
as I have replied before, the intent was to eventually donate the fruits
of this project to the ICS community; but as an incentive and
compensation to those who supported the effort financially, contributors
would get access to the source code for an entire year before it is
released to the rest of the community.
This does not mean that Francois is reneging on his offer of "freeware"
components, as announced in his web page. As many others developers, he
works on both proprietary and freeware components. This also does not
mean that you *must* pay to access ICS -- which is still actively
maintained. But it does mean that, at least for the moment, you must
join the effort of the ICS-SSL project in order to gain access to it.
And you do this by offering a donation. You could also wait a year
after the release to contributors for free access to it.
One last thing. Understand that the money pays Francois Piette's time
and effort on the project, which a lot of us long-time ICS users think
is well deserved. I myself contributed to the project, because I
believe in its merits, even if I have no current need for the
components. But that's just me, and it wouldn't be expected from anybody.
I hope this clears up your concerns about what ICS and OverByte stand
for. If you have further questions or issues, I suggest you either
contact Francois Piette or Wilfried Mestdagh, the current moderator of
this list, via direct e-mail. You can also contact me directly, though
I am not their representative, just a member of this community; but I'd
be happy to help in any way I can.
dZ.
--
DZ-Jay, Team ICS
http://www.overbyte.be/eng/overbyte/teamics.html
Marius van Tubbergh wrote:
>> I do not understand why people who spend hundreds of dollars for each
>> Windows copy hesitate to support a descent effort initiated by me back in
>> 2002-2003 and implemented by many volunteers who are ordinary coders just
>> like YOU!
> "Ordinary"??? Please elaborate.
> If my understanding is not failing me please let me have a word or two:
> I welcome your compliment warmly. Please keep in mind that you
> don't have a job if not for "ordinary" coders like myself.
> Bottom line is ordinary component developers like YOURSELF need ordinary
> coders like me.
>
> Please show me where does MS advertise there O/S to be free
> and as soon as you want to browse My Computer you need to make a "donation"
> (compulsory)?
>
>
>
>
>> I am not sure what your earning model is but ever thought of
>> developing shareware? If you did, you would understand
> My earning model is enough to purchase the best component suite on the
> market.
> (BTW: I have spend $1000's on components since 2002).
> I am developing freeware software as a hobby and support free / open source
> components.
> My line of work varies from property investment to software development
> etc...
> You might rent one of my properties, drop me the address and I will confirm.
>
>
>
>
>> that $50 for a source
>> code is actually no expensive than nothing.
> If not mistaken a minimum of $119 (only) will get me the source code.
> See: http://www.overbyte.be/frame_index.html
> I have no problem that you get paid for the ordinary work you do!
> But you should consider to replace "Freeware" (as you arrogantly advertise
> on your site) to "Shareware".
> What if I set up a software site and promote freeware software but as soon
> as you get to the download link
> I pop you an ORDER page to beg for a donation and if you don't donate you
> don't get the software. Or even worse,
> after you use the software you realize that it's only partly free and you
> have to make a minimum "donation" (doubting the terminology here) of $119
> in order to use the entire application.
> Please refer to your English dictionary for the term "donation".
> Quoting WordWeb:
> "Donation" =
> "A voluntary gift (as of money or service or ideas)
> made to some worthwhile cause"
> "Act of giving in common with others for a common
> purpose especially to a charity"
> Yes, I realize ICS is free and SSL-ICS is not free.
> You actually have very clever strategy, will give you credit for that.
> Something at least not that ordinary about YOU.
>
>
> NB: Your approach is really not good.
> Rather stick to technical support and don't try to get funny with users.
> I have actually just received a decent reply from DZ-Jay (Thanks).
> Have a look at it, catch a few tips and by the time SSL-ICS is free for
> everyone you might have enough
> "people-skills" not to chase users away but rather attract them.
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