How many customers you have is a key point of information for any company - for example, other gaming companies could be basing their release dates based on how close TransGaming was to their 20K subscribers. Or it could be used to predict TransGaming's marketing expenses. Hell, I'm no markettroid, but I can think of reasons why I'd want to keep it quiet.
If you want accountability, ask them to get an external auditor. Some external company to monitor their progress and keep the current source tree in escrow. TransGaming's REVENUE is the subscriber base, it's not like they can fake the numbers. So, once their number hits the 20K, the auditor releases the source.
We need to encourage more user participation in the development process, and give users more responsibility, both financially and otherwise, for the ultimate result.
Does this sounds like a bad thing?
And they will put the fruit of their labours (the revisions to the Wine tree) once "we have a paying subscriber base of at least 20,000 users."
All they want is to get paid for the work they are doing up front. Work that you the end user can direct by subscribing and voting.
What's not to get about their business model? Like the street performer they are providing entertainment with the hopes that if they provide a quality product that people will be willing to pay for it once.
The upside over closed source projects is that you won't have to pay for the same code in the next version of the game!
Garion,
The whole point of the subscriber model that TransGaming is using is that IF enough people subscribe, they'll release the source code to the common tree. Then those changes can be used everywhere.
Ok, TransGaming can't release the copy protection code, but that's hardly their fault, now is it?
Go, subscribe, vote for your favourite game. Skip the Starbucks latte once this month and you'll break even.
HanzoSan is correct - the really groundbreaking thing that TransGaming is doing is testing a new way for a commercial company to work within the Open Source world. Like the rest, it is concentrating on offering a specialized service (Getting your favourite games to work under your OS of choice) but still putting the fruits of their labours (the source code) back into the common pool.
I think that this is one of the coolest things that I have seen in a long time. This kind of thing is where commercial business can see that Closed Source is inefficient and unwieldy.
One of my favourite artists is also a real Canadian success story - she faced down the major labels, founded her own company, manages, produces and markets her own music. The artist is Loreena McKennitt and her company is Quinlan Road. I heartily commend her music anyone who likes Celtic-style music.
How do I know she's independent? I quote from her company information page
Quinlan Road is a fully independent record label and management office founded in 1985. It is run and wholly owned by its only artist, Loreena McKennitt. Quinlan Road has two offices, located in Stratford, Ontario, Canada and in London, England.
Loreena McKennitt's Quinlan Road recordings are distributed by a number of different distributors, large and small, around the world. However, we are committed to working as directly as possible with small, independent retailers - including non-traditional, alternative outlets - to ensure access to our recordings. If you are a record retailer and have any difficulty in obtaining Quinlan Road titles, or if you have any questions about our distribution arrangements in your area, please contact us directly and we will do our best to provide prompt assistance.
Matt
The Authors Note of Richard Stallman's 'The Right to Read'> (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html) lists a license agreement of a Chicago university. Although I have not myself seen this agreement, I believe Mr. Stallman that it was in force then. Now? Who knows. One thing is certain though - my university could have had one much the same...
The following text is a direct quote of the Author's note ------------------------- ...For example, a computer at one Chicago-area university prints this message when you log in (quotation marks are in the original):
"This system is for the use of authorized users only. Individuals using this computer system without authority or in the excess of their authority are subject to having all their activities on this system monitored and recorded by system personnel. In the course of monitoring individuals improperly using this system or in the course of system maintenance, the activities of authorized user may also be monitored. Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring and is advised that if such monitoring reveals possible evidence of illegal activity or violation of University regulations system personnel may provide the evidence of such monitoring to University authorities and/or law enforcement officials." This is an interesting approach to the Fourth Amendment: pressure most everyone to agree, in advance, to waive their rights under it. -------------------
Oh, and as a further addendum to my own post (I hate it when I find things after I submit;-). The Ottawa Citizen ran an article on April 10 about the same issues.
It's an interesting phenomenon, call it 'Gold Rush Fever' or 'capturing the face to face synergy'. Why are prices high? Because everyone wants to live there. Why does everyone want to live there? Lots of reasons I suspect. Reasons like:
a) If you want to be perceived as a hot mover and shaker, you have to live in California (Note: Real movers and shakers can live anywhere they want;-) b) The people I want to work for/with are all there c) I can't be a.com without a california mailing address. d) What I really want to find is a California Girl;-) e) If I don't have a job, I go to where there are lots of jobs and look there.
Personally, I'm seeing coalescing trends like this also in Canada - in Ottawa, they are predicting that the city could double in size due to high tech growth. I don't think that the popularity of these 'hot spots' means that distributed collaboration doesn't work - just that there are other reasons to be in close proximity.
However, I have to say that I think there will be a self-limiting feedback involved. As the cost of living spirals upward, more companies will choose spots like Reston VA, Rockville MD or Ottawa ON. Of course, the mob mind may rule, and in the land of illusions (California) perception is King.
You can view it as selling out, or buying in. When people enjoy something like UF (or a particular band, or..) they want to buy the associated gear. If I buy a Chris de Burgh T-shirt, I know where the money is going. And frankly, I don't think Chris needs it, but it's my only way of rewarding the Artist and encouraging him to continue.
I know it isn't a very Canadian thing to say but profit isn't a crime. If people didn't want the books, they wouldn't buy them. If his fans want the gear, why should Illiad refuse to sell it to them? Does this make sense? Why shouldn't Illiad facilitate his fans 'showing their colours', if THEY want? And lastly, if you don't like UF, then why are you reading this review?
Re:No, it's something else
on
Boo No More
·
· Score: 2
Regarding the initial post, I don't believe that this is the begining of the E-End. In a market like this, there will be a host of early adopters who are trying to grow fast. Some will, some won't. The ones who don't will go out of business and/or be swallowed up by the ones who did. Capital and economies of scale almost require it. Take a look at computer manufacturing, Internet Service Providers, or any number of similar industries.
As to JamesSharman's point about Europe having been passed by, personally I don't count anyone out of the race. With the rate of change driving complete turnovers in technology and indeed in market creation itself, there will be plenty of places to 'jump in' downstream. And the advantage of going second is that you can avoid the mistakes of the first fellow. He does get there first, but you can avoid stepping in anything that he did;-) For an example, take a look at cell phone technology. If I remember correctly, North America had it first, but Europe adopted a later standard (GSM) which give better performance and is more readily scalable. Just my $0.02,
I would interpret the license the same way that you do. However, since I cannot see any benefit to Borland's limiting how I give away my own code.
I know many compilers provide the source to their libraries so that you can step through them when debugging. Perhaps Borland is intended to ensure that you don't propogate their source code with this limitation. Assuming they give you the library source; something I can't check right now.
Looks to me like sloppy license writing, not offensive practices.;-) Then again, I could be wrong...
Slashdot Mirror
How many customers you have is a key point of information for any company - for example, other gaming companies could be basing their release dates based on how close TransGaming was to their 20K subscribers. Or it could be used to predict TransGaming's marketing expenses. Hell, I'm no markettroid, but I can think of reasons why I'd want to keep it quiet.
If you want accountability, ask them to get an external auditor. Some external company to monitor their progress and keep the current source tree in escrow. TransGaming's REVENUE is the subscriber base, it's not like they can fake the numbers. So, once their number hits the 20K, the auditor releases the source.
From TransGaming's Business Model page:
We need to encourage more user participation in the development process, and give users more responsibility, both financially and otherwise, for the ultimate result.
Does this sounds like a bad thing?
And they will put the fruit of their labours (the revisions to the Wine tree) once "we have a paying subscriber base of at least 20,000 users."
All they want is to get paid for the work they are doing up front. Work that you the end user can direct by subscribing and voting.
What's not to get about their business model? Like the street performer they are providing entertainment with the hopes that if they provide a quality product that people will be willing to pay for it once.
The upside over closed source projects is that you won't have to pay for the same code in the next version of the game!
Garion, The whole point of the subscriber model that TransGaming is using is that IF enough people subscribe, they'll release the source code to the common tree. Then those changes can be used everywhere.
Ok, TransGaming can't release the copy protection code, but that's hardly their fault, now is it? Go, subscribe, vote for your favourite game. Skip the Starbucks latte once this month and you'll break even.
HanzoSan is correct - the really groundbreaking thing that TransGaming is doing is testing a new way for a commercial company to work within the Open Source world. Like the rest, it is concentrating on offering a specialized service (Getting your favourite games to work under your OS of choice) but still putting the fruits of their labours (the source code) back into the common pool.
I think that this is one of the coolest things that I have seen in a long time. This kind of thing is where commercial business can see that Closed Source is inefficient and unwieldy.
Bravo Gavriel!
Matt
One of my favourite artists is also a real Canadian success story - she faced down the major labels, founded her own company, manages, produces and markets her own music. The artist is Loreena McKennitt and her company is Quinlan Road. I heartily commend her music anyone who likes Celtic-style music.
How do I know she's independent? I quote from her company information page
Quinlan Road is a fully independent record label and management office founded in 1985. It is run and wholly owned by its only artist, Loreena McKennitt. Quinlan Road has two offices, located in Stratford, Ontario, Canada and in London, England.
Loreena McKennitt's Quinlan Road recordings are distributed by a number of different distributors, large and small, around the world. However, we are committed to working as directly as possible with small, independent retailers - including non-traditional, alternative outlets - to ensure access to our recordings. If you are a record retailer and have any difficulty in obtaining Quinlan Road titles, or if you have any questions about our distribution arrangements in your area, please contact us directly and we will do our best to provide prompt assistance.
Matt
The Authors Note of Richard Stallman's 'The Right to Read'> (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html)
...For example, a computer at one Chicago-area university prints this message when you log in (quotation marks are in the original):
lists a license agreement of a Chicago university. Although I have not myself seen this agreement, I believe Mr. Stallman that it was in force then. Now? Who knows. One thing is certain though - my university could have had one much the same...
The following text is a direct quote of the Author's note
-------------------------
"This system is for the use of authorized users only. Individuals using this computer system without authority or in the excess of their authority are subject to having all their activities on this system monitored and recorded by system personnel. In the course of monitoring individuals improperly using this system or in the course of system maintenance, the activities of authorized user may also be monitored. Anyone using this system expressly consents to such monitoring and is advised that if such monitoring reveals possible evidence of illegal activity or violation of University regulations system personnel may provide the evidence of such monitoring to University authorities and/or law enforcement officials." This is an interesting approach to the Fourth Amendment: pressure most everyone to agree, in advance, to waive their rights under it.
-------------------
No, instead you will see enlightening comments like the following non-negative one...
"I would love it if my competitors would all adopt this product."
Oh, and as a further addendum to my own post (I hate it when I find things after I submit ;-). The Ottawa Citizen ran an article on April 10 about the same issues.
It's an interesting phenomenon, call it 'Gold Rush Fever' or 'capturing the face to face synergy'. Why are prices high? Because everyone wants to live there. Why does everyone want to live there? Lots of reasons I suspect. Reasons like:
;-) .com without a california mailing address. ;-)
a) If you want to be perceived as a hot mover and shaker, you have to live in California
(Note: Real movers and shakers can live anywhere they want
b) The people I want to work for/with are all there
c) I can't be a
d) What I really want to find is a California Girl
e) If I don't have a job, I go to where there are lots of jobs and look there.
Personally, I'm seeing coalescing trends like this also in Canada - in Ottawa, they are predicting that the city could double in size due to high tech growth. I don't think that the popularity of these 'hot spots' means that distributed collaboration doesn't work - just that there are other reasons to be in close proximity.
However, I have to say that I think there will be a self-limiting feedback involved. As the cost of living spirals upward, more companies will choose spots like Reston VA, Rockville MD or Ottawa ON.
Of course, the mob mind may rule, and in the land of illusions (California) perception is King.
You can view it as selling out, or buying in. When people enjoy something like UF (or a particular band, or..) they want to buy the associated gear. If I buy a Chris de Burgh T-shirt, I know where the money is going. And frankly, I don't think Chris needs it, but it's my only way of rewarding the Artist and encouraging him to continue.
I know it isn't a very Canadian thing to say but profit isn't a crime. If people didn't want the books, they wouldn't buy them. If his fans want the gear, why should Illiad refuse to sell it to them? Does this make sense? Why shouldn't Illiad facilitate his fans 'showing their colours', if THEY want? And lastly, if you don't like UF, then why are you reading this review?
Regarding the initial post, I don't believe that this is the begining of the E-End. In a market like this, there will be a host of early adopters who are trying to grow fast. Some will, some won't. The ones who don't will go out of business and/or be swallowed up by the ones who did. Capital and economies of scale almost require it. Take a look at computer manufacturing, Internet Service Providers, or any number of similar industries.
;-)
As to JamesSharman's point about Europe having been passed by, personally I don't count anyone out of the race. With the rate of change driving complete turnovers in technology and indeed in market creation itself, there will be plenty of places to 'jump in' downstream. And the advantage of going second is that you can avoid the mistakes of the first fellow. He does get there first, but you can avoid stepping in anything that he did
For an example, take a look at cell phone technology. If I remember correctly, North America had it first, but Europe adopted a later standard (GSM) which give better performance and is more readily scalable.
Just my $0.02,
Matt
I would interpret the license the same way that you do. However, since I cannot see any benefit to Borland's limiting how I give away my own code.
;-) Then again, I could be wrong...
I know many compilers provide the source to their libraries so that you can step through them when debugging. Perhaps Borland is intended to ensure that you don't propogate their source code with this limitation. Assuming they give you the library source; something I can't check right now.
Looks to me like sloppy license writing, not offensive practices.