[OS X TeX] ANN: AquaTkbibtex 1.3

[Bruno Voisin]

Le 21 juin 06 à 20:26, Kevin Walzer a écrit :

> I've released version 1.3 of AquaTkbibtex, my "Aquified" version of  
> the
> venerable tkbibtex editor developed by Peter Corke. The new release  
> is a
> universal binary and includes a refined interface for printing
> documents. It is licensed under the GPL. For more information, see
> http://aquatkbibtex.sourceforge.net/.

Warning: this answer is OT, and may be viewed as a rant.

I am a user of some of your software, which I generally like. This  
morning I've looked at Port Authority 1.0, a GUI for DarwinPorts and  
a featured download in ADC News #464. I have been a user of  
DarwinPorts at times, and have installed xpdf through it, for  
example. I have used Port Authority already and have publicized it on  
this list IIRC, at the times it was in beta stage and I had heard of  
its existence through the DarwinPorts mailing list archive.

When seeing the ADC announcement about the release of Port Authority  
1.0 I was first surprised, because I had seen no mention of it on the  
DarwinPorts list archive, since a message in April announced version  
1.0 was in the works. I downloaded it this morning, and now I  
understand: while Port Authority 1.0 is presented at the ADC download  
page <http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/unix_open_source/ 
portauthority.html> as freeware, only the X11 version is actually  
still freeware while the Aqua version is now shareware. Your download  
page is clearer in this respect <http://dpgui.sourceforge.net/>, and  
your blog <http://www.kevin-walzer.com/blosxom.cgi/2006/06/12#free_isn 
%27t_free> explains indeed why you decided to make the Aqua version  
shareware and how you consider web sites should now categorize the  
software as shareware (so that I think that the ADC download page, in  
particular, should be modified to mention it as shareware, not  
freeware).

It's obvious that you have put a lot of time and efforts into Port  
Authority, and the software is quite nice indeed. It fills in a  
useful gap, bringing to DarwinPorts to same ease of use that Fink has  
had for a long time thanks to Fink Commander. Thus, it's perfectly  
legitimate that you ask for retribution of your work. However, the  
move from freeware to shareware without prior notice seems unethical  
to me: a free beta version is released, people are starting to use  
it, they are reporting bugs either directly to you or through a  
mailing list, you are getting beta testers for free in this way, and  
then suddenly without prior notice the software is made shareware  
when reaching release quality, so that people have to pay for  
continuing to use it.

I was shocked when realizing this, in the same way as I had been  
shocked some time ago when Claus Gerhardt's Flashmode scripts, after  
testing as freeware on this list IIRC, became suddenly and without  
prior notice shareware. What would happen if Gerben Wierda, Dick  
Kock, Jérôme Laurens, Jonathan Kew, Adam Maxwell and all the other  
freeware Mac OS X TeX developers would suddenly decide that their  
work evolves from freeware or donationware to shareware? For sure a  
serious blow to the Mac TeX community that would be.

Bruno Voisin------------------------- Info --------------------------
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