From: Neon John <johngd_at_bellsouth.net>
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 02:31:07 -0500

On Mon, 15 Nov 2004 13:30:43 +0100 (MET), "[IDC]Dragon"
<idc-dragon_at_gmx.de> wrote:

>> If you look at the source code you see that most of the heavy lifting is
>> done in the TI proprietary libraries. That is fine, perhaps even great,
>> for a commercial product but unacceptable for an open source project.
>
>I disagree. On the Archos, the "heavy lifting" is done by the MAS codec and
>the USB bridge. We live quite well with it. These parts are black boxes to
>us, in effect similar to those libraries.

Both of which come with each and every Jukebox sold. The TI library comes
as part of a very expensive development system. Your point is?

>
>> As
>> is having to buy VERY expensive commercial tools. An eval version with a
>> 90 day time bomb is unacceptable too.
>
>But you can't blame Meuros for that. It was started as a commercial design,
>free compilers are no prerequisite to that. It's togh luck that their
>platform is not suitable for our development style, but not their fault.
>Btw, open source means that you're free to compile your own variant. It
>doesn't mean the compiler has to be free, too.

Umm, what I said. I blame Neuros for lying about being open source for at
least 2 years, all the while trying to wrap themselves in the glory of
open source. They were claiming to be an open source company at least a
year before they released ANYTHING.

>
>> As one of the first people who tried to get Neuros to quit lying and live
>> up to their open source claims, I have a very bad taste in my mouth and
>> probably would never consider ANY products from that company. I'm sure
>> that distaste is shared by the guys who sling the code.
>
>I don't know the first part of the story, but from the IRC chats with these
>guys they seem nice and helpful, doing what they could, under the
>circumstances. They have given away what they have (schematics may be
>missing yet), not necessarily a common move in the corporate world. The TI
>libraries are 3rd party, closed source to them, too. I see no reason to be
>angry about them.

That first part of the story that you don't know about is the critical
part. I carried on a nice conversation (though she later characterized it
otherwise) with a lady there who I think is the wife of an officer.
President, I think. She continued to relate the various debates,
arguments and other stalling tactics by the prez and minions. Meanwhile
the whole system remained proprietary. I suggested at one point that they
simply remove their open source claims from their web site. That would
satisfy me. Didn't happen.

John

---
John De Armond
johngdDONTYOUDARE_at_bellsouth.net
http://bellsouthpwp.net/j/o/johngd/
Cleveland, Occupied TN
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Received on 2004-11-16