[tex-live] free software, DFSG

David Kastrup dak at gnu.org
Sun Jun 6 20:50:55 CEST 2004


Sebastian Rahtz <sebastian.rahtz at computing-services.oxford.ac.uk> writes:

> It's hard to think of any successful open source projects still
> operating in the extreme "cathedral" mode.
> TeX world seems entirely out of sync with the world in this respect.
> 
> Intertesting that David mentions the Hurd; one might have cited that
> as a project which failed for the same reasons David is castigating
> Omega. I am glad to hear it is not after all dead :-}

Well, it has been buried, and its property has been split among the
heirs and their pet penguins.  So it would have a hard time getting
into any respected position nowadays: Zombies without property have a
hard stand in today's world.  Even though the Hurd still wears tidy
clothes on its web site, CVS, mailing lists.

In contrast, the property of Omega has not been claimed as to now.
While the TeX/Unicode world is in flirtation with several candidates,
there is no serious commitment yet.  So there is still a way open into
respectable society.

Something like that.  I am not known for sane analogies.

Sorry for that.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum



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