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From approximately 1999 through 2002, I worked on the Quakeforge project. Amongst other things, I added some special effects, gzip file loading, and maintained ports to Irix, Solaris, and PowerPC Linux.

The greatest problem that Quake has is legacy. This is an old code base with numerous forks and a great amount of code sharing between projects. Closing the source to a Quake engine is like opening the source of a commercial Unix, you've got code from all over the place and you're not sure where it came from.

When I first heard that Darkplaces / Nexuiz was closing the source, I spent half a day reviewing their source to determine if any of my own code had been included. That search resulted in a determination that the project definitely contained my code at one point, but I could no longer recognize any offending bits. Still, I'm not entirely certain that my code has been entirely removed. The work on ports was particularly concerning to me as non-portable code can exist throughout a code base, I could potentially have a single character infringed. ;-)

At the end of the day, however, I'm not really against this as long as they can account for the code and settle with the independent contributors. They have at least appeared to resolve this amicably with the contributors, unlike the ill-fated QuakeLives project which, in 2000, very clearly violated the GPL, prompting outrage within the Quake developer community and within id software itself.

Actually, Slade (of the infamous QuakeLives project) did that, and it took a few months of being really nice about it before John Carmack finally threatened legal action.

I think you're right. However, if D-Link actually made the written offer for source code, and you notified them that you wanted the source code in exchange for the reasonable cost of physical distribution (thus accepting the offer), and they refused, then they would not be violating copyright law (because they would have complied with the GPL). However, they would be in breach of their contract with you. Furthermore, if they then tried to use "it wasn't an offer" as a defense against your claim, I imagine the copyright holder could hold them liable for copyright infringement.

It always amuses me how people try to wriggle their way out of the requirements of the GPL (which are quite reasonable, IMHO), and then expect to be able to distribute GPL-covered code anyway. It doesn't work, but people still try. The case of Slade and the QuakeLives project, though it didn't go to court, is still an entertaining read.

From the article:

Eventually, Alexander told me that $4000 was too expensive for them and asked to meet me and discuss alternatives.

and then

A few days later, Alexander told me that he has consulted with his lawyers

I call bullshit. Unless lawyers in Israel are vastly cheaper than they are in North America, nobody would pay lawyers, and then take legal risks (which could involve paying the lawyers some more) in order to save only $4000.

This "Alexander" character sounds a lot like Slade from QuakeLives.

Easy: Install the "keg" game from here

If you are a lousy programmer and cannot read the code, here are some hints ;-)

More seriously. Make sure you have Shockwave/Flash installed on the live cd's, or people trying out the browser experience will get pretty disappointed. (Visiting their favorite page, and it "doesnt" work.

There have to be 200...and he takes detailed pics of individual keys...I mean WTF!? I just want to see it running!

In case anyone's interested in seeing more of the Osborne 1 itself, you might like to check out my Osborne 1 site, which has LOTS of pictures of the unit and various associated paraphenalia, some small mpeg movies of it in operation (including the great "disk grind" sound), and scans of the O1 Technical Manual, Field Service Manual, and a few others (though not the User's Manual, which is very large). And yes, it still works, although I've lost a few disks to bit rot... I get the feeling I'll have to dust it off after work and give it a spin, just for old time's sake.