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Tux Racer 1.0 To Be Closed Source, Windows Only

Posted by timothy on from the little-kids'-favorite-linux-productivity-app dept.

rubberpaw (J. Nathan Matias) writes: "Sunspire Studios is going to release Tux Racer 1.0 as a closed source, commercial product. Tux Racer is the Free Software community's premier 3d game, and I only found out about the future closed-source release in emails from Sunspire. They are following the procedures of relicensing allowed from the GPL, so everything is legal. In response to this, I have started a project called Open Racer whose purpose is to continue development of the GPL Tux Racer. Sunspire is ok (and, I believe, happy) with everything so long as the project doesn't go into direct competition with Tux Racer 1.0. It's my goal to develop the project in a different direction in accordance with Sunspire's wishes, but I'm still looking for ideas at this point." See this Newsforge story for more details.Update: 08/02 09:55 PM by T : According to the Sunspire site, the eventual retail version of Tux Racer will have binary versions for Windows and Linux, "(and most likely the Macintosh)." The OEM version in the works, however, is presently Windows-only.

Matias writes: "Sunspire is ok (and, I believe, happy) with everything so long as the project doesn't go into direct competition with Tux Racer 1.0. It's my goal to develop the project in a different direction in accordance with Sunspire's wishes, but I'm still looking for ideas at this point."

Also, he's looking for a new maintainer -- if this project grabs your attention, pop him an email.

10 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. He did get patches and bugfixes! by tap · · Score: 5
    There are a bunch of debian bugs, and I'm sure there were lots of other bug reports that didn't get mentioned on the news page. But what did get mentioned on the tuxracer site:

    • Arbitrary joystick axes can be mapped to Tux controls (thanks to Julie Brandon for suggestion and patch).
    • Fixed some 32-bit-isms to allow compiling on 64-bit machines (like Alphas); thanks to Jay Estabrook for the patch.
    • Darrell Walisser has ported Tux Racer to the Mac! We've placed a link in the Downloads section. Thanks Darrell!
    • I believe that this makes Tux Racer the first open-source game to feature adaptive LOD terrain. Many thanks to Thatcher Ulrich, whose code was used (see Thatcher's excellent Gamasutra article for a description of the algorithm and a link to the demo code).
    • Matt Majka has ported Tux Racer 0.61 to Mac OS X.
    I also found this news item interesting..
    I'm very happy to announce that Tux Racer is now being developed by Sunspire Studios, a very talented team of artists and developers (which happens to include me ;-). This is great news, since it means that Tux Racer development will proceed at a much faster rate. And you needn't worry -- Tux Racer will continue to be an open source game.
  2. He cannot. by OmniGeek · · Score: 5

    Simple answer, if I understand the GPL correctly, is that he cannot include user patches to the GPL'ed code into non-GPL'ed code unless they assigned their copyrights to him (unlikely to have happened) or otherwise explicitly/implicitly gave him control of it (dicey), or he implemented outside suggestions by writing his OWN code that is not a derivative work of others' patches (the most probable case, and VERY dicey, but likely unenforceable, especially if the others didn't clearly mark their contributions as GPLed). The critical point in the last case is whether the original developer did or didn't incorporate actual code written by others. The typical case of a user submitting a report that "there's a bug in line XXX of module YYY that should do Z but does Q" would likely not cause GPL trouble of this kind. I doubt this would be an obstacle in practice, but one never knows...

    --

    "My strength is as the strength of ten men, for I am wired to the eyeballs on espresso."
  3. Neat! by skrowl · · Score: 5

    Now I don't have to reboot to linux to play games! .... oh wait a minute.
    ____________________
    Remember, not all /. users hate Windows or think Microsoft is out to get them!

    --

    Prevent linux based DDOS's!
    http://linux.denialofservice.org/
  4. Bill Racer.... by mikeage · · Score: 5
    ... maybe slamming into those mountains at high speed won't be such a bad idea with little Billy G's sliding ;).

    Seriously... the article doesn't say they don't want to closed-source release for Windows only... it says they have no OEM retailers to ship a linux version. They _did_ say they will want to eventually GPL it, as well as ship a CD with Windows, Mac, and Linux ports. Read, people, read!

    --
    -- Is "Sig" copyrighted by www.sig.com?
  5. Re:I'm confused. by ajuda · · Score: 5

    I think he can relicense his software, but the better question is: how can an author relicense all the bug patches and fixes made by others?


    This message was encrypted with rot-26 cryptography.

  6. Re:Hmmm.... by Pxtl · · Score: 5

    Read the article. They said that the problem is the OEM company doesn't want to support the Linux version - their trying to get the Linux version included in the boxed set, or even on the same CD. So, not only will there be a Linux version, but nearly everyone who buys the game will have it.

  7. How insulting... by reddeno · · Score: 5

    I find it very insulting that they are using the Linux mascot.

    Perhaps they could call it WinRacer: "Ski the Windows logo into the pits of hell while collecting small companies along the way!" Yay!

  8. With thier wishes ? by Captain+Rotundo · · Score: 5

    Why bother keeping with their wishes in mind? If they want to go proprietary, so be it, but why listen to them? They are he ones that are forcing YOU to continue the project. I think its best to view projects that have been taken proprietary like this as orphaned projects, that same as any other orphaned projects. Jsut my two cents.

  9. Why I won't use Open Racer to compete with Tux by rubberpaw · · Score: 5

    My goal in saving tux racer is to save tux racer, not to compete with sunspire and get into an Xemacs vs Emacs, ssh vs openssh, etc war. The best way I saw of doing that was to attempt to develop in a different direction. Furthermore, Sunspire _does_ have 0.61 as an open source version. If I competed with them, they could leverage their marketing head-start against me, killing the Open Racer project. As it lies now, Sunspire has agreed to link to the Open Racer site from the Tux Racer site, which gives me the advantage of having their head-start in publicity. I have no intention to compete with Sunspire. I couldn't do so even if I wanted to. They have a head start of several programmers coding for six months. I have one programmer (myself), who can throw maybe an hour or two every week. Again, if anyone is interested with ideas, or suggestions, or anyone wants to code or do artwork, let me know at my email address.

  10. Not True! Linux version is going strong by jfpatry · · Score: 5
    *sigh* The subject of this item is horribly misleading.

    I'd like to reassure everyone that we have not abandoned the Linux version. The Linux and Windows versions are at the exact same stage of development. We fully intend to release the retail Linux version of Tux Racer at the same time as the retail Windows version; in fact they will be in the same box.

    The final details of the OEM deal have not been finalized. Getting a Linux version added onto the CD is something that we have considered and will try to do. The only obstacle to this is the fact that our OEM agent only supports Windows products. We will keep you posted.

    Jasmin Patry, Lead Programmer, Tux Racer