Howdy Max :-)

----- Original Message -----

> Scott, I disagree with you. I do think Triadis has a responsibility
> to actively support XCSoar.

I am afraid my email must have been unclear then. Yes, they should !

What I was trying to point out, is that they should not be obliged to upgrade 
to V6.

However if they don't, they should support their release of 5.

Sorry if that was not clear.

I agree that Altair is a category of device, unlike a laptop/PDA, that is built 
for the entity (ala XCSoar) like an Android Phone is, and therefore should 
support a release.

> > * Triadis has paid back XCSoar in kind many times over
> 
> I doubt that.

I am disappointed you think so. You are doing a stella job, but don't forget 
that for 4 years before your time, this was maintained project, and a large 
amount of code was written by Sam. You may have difficulty seing that, as we 
used Subversion and the patches were applied by JW and myself.

Please remember that software is a living thing. Even if a developer rewrote an 
entire class, the old class still provided the knowledge and template to get 
started. Starting from scratch would not have taken the same amount of time. 
This of course is the beauty of open source that we love :-)

I have delivered you no patches in the last 12 months - does that mean my 4 
years of development is now worth nothing? Of course not, you are still using 
my code :-)

> They have developed much more, but refused to give these changes back
> to us for too long (which was an obvious copyright violation).

Yes but we now know that was never the case, it was just communications (ie. 
not easy to find URL). Which is probably a shame it went that way, but we have 
sorted it out now.

FYI - It is not a copyright violation not to give changes back, just to not 
make them available. And then it would be a license violation, not copyright. 
Sorry, I have spent way too much time around this space :-) Worked on lots of 
big projects discussing these specific issues, so I get a little semantic.

> When
> they did, it was too late to merge. I don't count that as "paid back
> many times over".

Please don't confuse 4 years with 1 year. As I stated, the last year has been a 
problem / bad - but for 4 years before that was not the case. 
 
> Not good examples. My contract includes a new phone every 2 years, I
> don't care a lot. My car and my microwave are "future proof" already
> and will always be. A DVD player cannot technically be upgraded to a
> Blu-Ray player, but it would be a stupid thing (ecological disaster)
> to buy a new Altair and throw the old one away, just to get a new
> software version.

You are right. It is hard to come up with the right examples. You talk about 
phone, but my phone lasts longer, and I don't use contracts. On the other hand, 
not having the config on my Linksys router to enable me to use bittorrent, or 
my ADSL modem which no longer supported the authentication method we required 
for our service provider really sux - but do I expect the company to support 
devices for ever - well not in those cases :-)

But, as I have said above, I agree, that it should be supported, but not future 
proof. I expect my mobile provider to fix bugs and support the version they 
have. I don't expect them to add features.

Now I should also clarify, expect - I mean I do not expect them to, does not 
mean they should not :-)

So maybe we all agree, but we are talking semantics. XCSoar could easily be 
improved over the years such that it requires a faster CPU and Memory and make 
it impossible to run on older hardware, even Altair. One day that will happen. 
That is extreme, but just a case in point. But from semantics I think what was 
lost a bit in our discussions is the difference between support and future 
upgrades.

Thanks Max

Scooter

P.S. My glider is no longer supported by the manufacturer ! I can fix things 
myself of course, or hire experts, but it is a good example :-) The 
manufacturer exists, they just don't even release air worthiness notes any more.
-- 
http://scott.dd.com.au/
[email protected]



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