Open source

[bertHoog]

Did the makers of FMS ever considered putting the source in in a opensource domain like sourceforge. Sinds nothing has changed in the sotware for 6 years but computer Hardware and windows/Linux are moving forward it me be an idee to make it open source and get input for changes from outside.

[ggunners]

BertHoog, I talked to the authors awhile ago and they were disillusioned by those that package
FMS and call it their own. They were happy to license it when others were making money off
the software but only a few were honest about it.

So, they prefer to keep it to themselves and are not developing it because of all those
that tried to take ownership for their efforts.

When you're packaging freeware, the real joy is seeing others use your code for their
personal benefit, not some business angle.

-- ggunners

[bertHoog]

Open source does not mean that it is not your property is any more.

If sombody wants to sell a copy of this program he wants to make money out of it. this does not mean that hij wants to change it or improve it. They can do that even if it is freeware

With open source you do not give a license to somebody. whit open source programs you give somebody the right to change the program but never gives them a licence to sell it. All modifications that are made by somebody heve to come back to to the orginal owner so he can incorporate it in the program if it is usefull. This means also that more people look at it and bring fress idee's

Many programs benefit from this system Just look at Linux that is a total open source program or tinycad or freepcb or openoffice. They are all open source programs that are free for everybody and are very good programs

Regards

Bert

[jamesburgess]

I'm sorry to hear the authors had a bad experience. I wonder now that so much time has passed and GPL licensing has been around for sometime they might reconsider? I mean really, what is there to lose at this point?

I'm a programmer, I have no interest in making money off of FMS, I will sign anything to that effect. I sure would like to build a version that would "just run" on newer versions of the OS, a proper installer etc.

I'd also be interested in porting it to OpenGL and thus make a linux and OSX version possible.

- James

[clan1]

[cubbieco]

If anybody has contact with the original authors is it possible that this could be revisited? This is a fantastic program as is. It may be a little dated but that's it. It might be nice to have some kind of on-screen compass so I know which way I'm facing. This is why I am asking and my rather basic C programming skills might be enough to do that. This simulator is light years ahead of the other free offering that I could find so I just thought I'd ask. If they wanted to wash their hands of everything that could happen as well. Just release the source to somebody and don't look back.

With that said it sucks what has happened. I'd like to think things have matured a bit out there with organizations such as the Linux foundation, E.F.F., and the Creative Commons organization helping to educate people on what is proper use of copyrighted material on the internet. But I don't blame the authors for putting this project behind them and not doing anything with it. Its a couple years later now since I can see this was brought up so maybe this time they might turn it over and allow somebody to manage the project for them (I'd be willing to manage it for example.)

Thanks