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SGI & The IMD4Linux Project?
thomas536 asks: "I have been following the IMD4Linux Project and am currently using their desktop. The project developer has recently had some difficulty receiving a response from SGI concerning SGI's licensing and a possible partnership between SGI and IMD4Linux. This has resulted in him posting his last letter on the project website. Can anybody in the Slashdot community help him generate a (hopefully positive) response from SGI in this matter?"
I don't know anything about the project, but from the information on the website it seems that it is an extension of SGI's source code. How did the author get the source code in the first place to extend?
He didnt, AFAICT, it's a clone of SGI's Indigo Magic Desktop, including the window manager, 4Dwm (hence why his site is 5Dwm) and the widgets SGI added, as well as some of the apps. Read the information on the front page of the site a bit more carefully:
IMD4Linux is the IRIX Interactive Desktop rebuilt from scratch on Linux using today's technologies and SGI's Interactive Desktop as guideline.
The legal issues are presumably due to the use of SGI trademarks, which is hinted at in the letter, the bit where he says:
I changed the project name from 'Indigo Magic Desktop for Linux' to 'IMD4Linux'
However, it's hard to tell for sure as the site doesnt seem to have more in the way of detail on the SGI legal/whatever issues bar that letter of his. It does appear to be his source though.
I use Friend/Foe + mod-point modifiers as a karma/reputation system.
When I did work experience at SGI, I really liked the way 4dwm worked, so I asked some engineers there how I could get this running at home, and they actually told me to try 5dwm. I know that's no endorsement by them, but it shows that they do know about the project.