Apr 12
If a product opensource if you have to pay $15 to get it? Maui X-Stream plans to opensource Cherry OS a Mac OS emulator on May 1st.
Why are they doing this? They have been under attack by PearPC developers, who allege that some of their code was stolen. Maui is going to try to use OpenSource as a way to proove that they haven’t stolen anything.
What was interesting was the quote:
The company is waiting until 1 May to release the source code to allow time to prepare for the “onslaught of response” that it expects. It will charge $14.95 (
April 12th, 2005 at 4:09 am
well, open source and free software doesn’t have the same meaning.
April 12th, 2005 at 7:23 am
It can be open source and cost money. This is even the case if it’s GPL’d: you can decide to charge for the product, as long as you distribute the source as well. Furthermore, you can restrict distributing the source to those who have bought the product.
A good working “minimal definition” of open source is: here’s the code, you can tinker with it as much as you like, but you can’t redistribute it. Once you start adding redistribution rights, you head towards free-as-in-speech software.
However, if they choose the wrong license to release it under, they’ll be hard pressed to stop someone paying for it, once, then offering it for free elsewhere.
April 12th, 2005 at 8:55 am
I agree that this smells bad, but I don’t think there’s anything actually wrong with it. It reminds me of a company that will send you a CD for $.01 + $25 shipping and handling.
April 12th, 2005 at 9:07 pm
Yes open-source and Free Software can certainly cost money. Most licenses only say that the source must be released with the binary releases.
April 13th, 2005 at 11:59 am
I don’t know what license PearPC is released under, but assuming PearPC is GPLed and that CherryOS is trying to fix their legal issues, they may release it under the GPL. If that’s the case, the CherryOS folks are certainly free to charge $15 to download it, but everyone else in the world is free to toss it up on their own website if they wish.