RE: [ANNOUNCEMENT] Cygwin/XFree86 DocBook-based FAQ Draft 3

[Suhaib Siddiqi <ssiddiqi at inspirepharm dot com>]

A searcch in mail archives should give a copy of my correspondence with Open
Group.
It is a MOTIF license violation to compile OpenMOTIF on Cygwin.  OpenGroup 
explained me, Cygwin is not an Operating System (Platform).  The underlying
operating system is Windows which is not an open source operating system,
therefore to compile OpenMOTIF on Windows, regardless of which technology
you use, you need rolaty based commercial license.  I forwarded copy of the
email to the list when OpenMOTIf was released, because several users were
asking if we would provide binaries of OpenMOTIf with X11R6.x libraries.

Suhaib

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Harold Hunt [mailto:huntharo@msu.edu] 
> Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2001 7:23 AM
> To: Robert Collins; cygx
> Subject: RE: [ANNOUNCEMENT] Cygwin/XFree86 DocBook-based FAQ Draft 3
> 
> 
> Robert,
> 
> > It's wrong. The original FAQ is the definitive answer:
> 
> What original FAQ?
> 
> In the FAQ I wrote, "Cygwin/XFree86 may qualify as a platform 
> that Open Motif can be distributed with and used on, but work 
> has yet to begin on determining if that is the case."
> 
> From the Open Motif FAQ:
> 
> Q: How does The Open Group define the term "Operating System" 
> Does this apply to the kernel or the complete distribution?
> 
> A: The Open Group's intent is that this applies only to the 
> kernel of the operating system, without regard to any bundled 
> utilities or application software. This includes all known 
> distributions of Linux and BSD distributions. To find out if 
> an operating system qualifies check whether kernel sources 
> are available under criteria meeting the OSI's Open Source Definition.
> 
> I'm pretty sure that we'd actually have to contact The Open 
> Group to check which side of "Open Source" we fall on, as 
> Cygwin has a kernel that is clearly Open Source, whereas the 
> Windows kernel is not Open Source.  Which kernel are we to 
> consider?  The kernel that we depend upon, which would be 
> Cygwin?  Or, the kernel that we can sometimes interact with, 
> which would be Widnows?
> 
> Furthermore, one could make the case that Cygwin/XFree86 is a 
> program that allows Wine users running on Linux to run X 
> programs under Wine.  In that case we would clearly be 
> running with an Open Source kernel, so we would be able to 
> distribute and use Open Motif with Cygwin/XFree86, right?
> 
> I think my indefinite wording is probably the correct thing to say :)
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> I'm not sure, but you may have been implying that Open Motif 
> is only the "contributions" to Motif, not the central Motif 
> source itself.  I'll go ahead and address that with another 
> quote from the Open Motif FAQ:
> 
> Q: What is Open Motif? How does it differ from standard Motif?
> 
> A: Aside from some different copyright and license 
> statements, both Motif and Open Motif share the same 
> functionality and source code. The primary difference is the 
> software license for each of the software products. Open 
> Motif source code and binaries can be distributed royalty 
> free under The Open Group Public License as long as the 
> operating system upon which Open Motif is running meets the 
> OSI's Open Source Definition. Motif is made available under 
> the standard Open Group software licenses and requires the 
> payment of source code and royalty fees.
> 
> I'd say that clearly indicates that Open Motif and Motif are 
> the same thing, even if you hadn't implied otherwise :)
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Furthermore, the general gist of the Open Motif FAQ, 
> http://www.opengroup.org/openmotif/faq.html, > indicates that 
> Open Motif is going to be available in the future under an 
> true open source license after the lawyers get their money :)
> 
> Harold
>