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Connectix Considering Open Sourcing VGS?
Araquel writes, "MacOS Rumors is reporting that Connectix is considering releasing an Open Source Linux version of its Virtual Game Station product (VGS is a PlayStation emulator for Macs). MacOS Rumors is calling for people to e-mail Connectix, requesting that they actually release the source code."
They mixed up the VGS/VPC thing just like the guy who sent in that last Connectix story to Slashdot. MacOS Rumors does not have any knowledgable sources except for the stuff they swipe off the front page of AppleInsider, and even that's wrong half the time. They're the Apple equivalent of the Weekly World News, they post anything and everything that gets emailed to them, including obvious pranks and fake rumors.
Either it's complete spoof, or Connectix is looking to the open source community to provide them legal protection, just as it's been trying to do with DeCSS...
I'll be really sad if connectix does this. They spent quite a long time developing this peice of software, withstood the first of two lawsuits standing, and are basically about to throw the money they could have earned to the wind...
Of course the 2nd lawsuit is a patent case, so maybe they know they've violated some patents... In which case, again, OSS seems to be the savior for projects which are dependant on other companies patents.
If their product is legit, they should keep it for themselves and make some money. If it's not, then it certainly shouldn't be open sourced. It'll just tarnish the whole OSS movements repuatation.
And don't anyone tell me they can earn money from it after open sourcing it... Maybe they can, but not enough to offset their costs... Open source software sells (when it does) for multitudes of times cheaper than commercial software. It's all fine and dandy for programmers with day jobs, but i don't think it meshes well with a company's economics, bills, and shareholders.
(obligatory counterproductive moderation comment here)
/. earlier this week. As we all know now, that story was completely misreported; it was Connectix which was bundling Red Hat with their Virtual PC emulation software for the Mac. (Okay, so calling it 'Virtual PC *for* Red Hat Linux' isn't the best idea, but...)
This is absolutely 100% not true in any way, shape, or form. MacOSRumors is well-known among people with functioning neurons for outright fabrication of information; in this case, the 'kernel of truth' they built this story around is the erroneous 'Connectix is bundling VGS with Red Hat' story posted here on
Connectix is not on record as stating a Linux port, open or otherwise, is in the cards; as of now, the only non-Mac port is slated to be to Win9x.
C'mon! After having already had one bogus Connectix/VGS story in a week, you'd think a little bit of verification work would have been done! This is a new low... Slashdot's gone and trollerized itself!
Also, look at the "international" section of the FAQ (right below the "legal" section), which talks about the geographic-region encoding.
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The shareholder is always right.
Here's another emulator story (which I submitted, but got rejected... I think the /. authors don't like me)
Someone has created a Dreamcast VMU (Visual Memory Unit) emulator. I believe that he has even been able to get a program he made with it to download to the VMU and play a mini-game he made himself. It may not be a Dreamcast emulator, but it's a start.
Also, there's a few pages geared toward accelerating Dreamcast emulator development here and here.
You should never take life too seriously - You'll never get out of it alive.
As a former BLM "employee" (read: Ryan's bitch for nine months), I had the wonderful joy of watching him work. He greatly overstates the amount of email he receives. He makes stuff up out of whole cloth. I HAVE SEEN HIM DO THIS. I once said "Wouldn't it be neat if Apple did x?" About an hour or so later, I read on Rumors that "reliable sources" had informed him that Apple was indeed planning to do x.
I was also around during the time when /. and BLM parted ways. It was a Very Big Deal, and not amicable for either party. (Hint: It was near mid-April 1999. What happens in the middle of April? Bingo. Ryan lost all of BLM's financial data in his Hard Drive Crash of December 1998. He kept no backups. Smart guy.)
Additonally, BLM's "business model" changed no less than four times during the nine months I was there, and has changed a couple of times since. I came to the office for "strategy sessions" which consisted of him rambling about wanting to finance research to facilitate leisure space travel for about five minutes before retiring to his desk to smoke a bowl and play Quake. Working for a company that would rather buy illicit substances than pay its employees instills such a wonderful sense of morale.
Indeed, Ryan Meader's sole skill appears to be getting people to do work for him for free until they finally realize what he's doing to them. There are no less than five people (which basically comprises most of BLM's non-Ryan and non-Sarah entire core workforce throughout its existence) that have been burned by him within the past eighteen months.
This is being posted non-anonymously for two reasons. Firstly, I hope it lends some sort of credibility to my statements, as it is indeed all true. Secondly, I don't really give a flying fuck what Ryan has to say or do about it.