From: tmcconne@sedona.intel.com (Tom McConnell~)
Subject: Re: Motif vs. [Athena, etc.]
Organization: Intel Corporation
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Distribution: world
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Originator: tmcconne@sedona


In article <C5K6ny.AzJ@kirk.bu.oz.au>, bambi@kirk.bu.oz.au (David J. Hughes) writes:
> berry@durian.citr.uq.oz.au (Andrew Berry) writes:
>
> Ports of Motif to both 386BSD and Linux are available for a fee of about
> $100.  This is cost recovery for the person who bought the rights to
> redistribute.  The activity in both the BSD and Linux news groups
> pertaining to Motif has been high.
> 
> 
> >I just wonder if this will also cause a divergence between commercial
> >and non-commercial software (ie. you will only get free software using
> >Athena or OpenLook widget sets, and only get commercial software using
> >the Motif widget sets).  
> 
> 
> I can't see why.  If just about every workstation will come with Motif
> by default and you can buy it for under $100 for the "free" UNIX
> platforms, I can't see this causing major problems.

  Let me add another of my concerns: Yes, I can buy a port of Motif for "cheap",
but I cannot get the source for "cheap", hence I am limited to using whatever X
libraries the Motif port was compiled against (at least with older versions of
Motif. I have been told that Motif 1.2 can be used with any X, but I have not
seen it myself).

  Currently, I have X11R5 running on eight different unix platforms, of which
only three came with Motif. On those three, I am unable to use the X11R5
libraries to build Motif clients, because I get link errors between the
vendor-supplied port of Motif and my X11R5. I anticipate having this same
problem when X11R6 becomes available.

  The result is that I cannot build Motif clients that rely on X11R5, since I do
not have Motif compiled under X11R5. True, I could buy another port of Motif,
but that sort of ruins the whole idea of "free", doesn't it?

    Cheers,

    Tom McConnell
-- 
 Tom McConnell          |     Internet: tmcconne@sedona.intel.com
 Intel, Corp. C3-91     |     Phone: (602)-554-8229
 5000 W. Chandler Blvd. | The opinions expressed are my own. No one in 
 Chandler, AZ  85226    | their right mind would claim them.
