Harald Frank / AROS

[bhoggett]

@mdma

Without giving to much away from a private subscription list (I might get thrown off!),  I think this could be good for AROS as he wrote the powerpci.library stuff for Amithlon, as long as he sticks to the licence model (Which I have no doubt he will), then this can only be a good thing, especially now that AROS is being proted to Pegasos and we have AHI support from Martin.

That raises an interesting scenario:

Mr Frank has always claimed that Bernd Meyer cannot use any code or technology developed for Amithlon in any other project because he claims part ownership of all involved IP.

Converesely, one would have to assume that this also means that Mr. Frank cannot use any of the technology he's developed for Amithlon in any other project without Bernd Meyer's express premission.

(The above assumes Mr Frank is correct, so this would apply from his point of view)

If he does go ahead and contribute Amithlon technology to the AROS project, doesn't that void any claims he has over Bernd Meyer's work?

hmmm...

[bhoggett]

@cecilia

i personally would watch him like a hawk. just in case

I'd be inclined to second that. I really don't believe he would get involved with AROS for one minute unless he sees a profit angle for himself in doing so, and I can state from personal experience and direct conversations with the man that his view on open source licensing is loose at best.  You don't want to go through the development and testing process only to find that come the time of release HF decides he wants to impose restrictions incompatible with the AROS Public License.

[bhoggett]

@Paul_Gadd

A nice interesting read but nothing beats this.

You'd be surprised. Let's just say that episode is a mild one by HF standards.

 :roll:

[bhoggett]

@Kronos

 :-D

I've never known Bernie to be a fool. If someone is going to give him free hardware, he'll take it.

To be perfectly honest, if he is doing paid work for Genesi, who can blame him? I can assure you that Bernie has become a better judge of character over the past two years and that he does read the forums too.

That's not to say I know anything about a Genesi connection. I do know Bernie has a proper job now, so he is at least earning money for his talent, which is about time.

(Incidentally, Bernie did offer to do a PPC version of his JIT 68k emulation some time ago, provided that the company approached - who were not Genesi - were willing to supply him with the hardware and would pay him the going rate for this kind of work)

All this, as you say, is totally OT.    :-P

[bhoggett]

@bloodline

5. Wasn't Amithlon a "competitor" to AROS?

Not according to Fabio, and I tend to agree, at least as things stand now.  Certainly there is a very marked difference in what the two systems focus on.

Whether the two systems would have become rivals at some point in the future is a matter for speculation.

What I have my doubts about is HF's motivation. He claims to still be updating and developing Amithlon (I'm tempted to say the update is "on track and rockin'" but I won't), yet he is planning to contribute code to an open source project which may in time become a rival. I know HF wants to sell drivers, preferably the same driver for all Amiga-like systems. This works with supplying his library for closed source systems, but as AROS is open source, anyone will be able to write the drivers. Perhaps he is hoping AROS drivers will then be portable back to Amithlon to alleviate the chronic lack of drivers released for that system? Who knows? I've given up trying to read his mind.  :-P

[bhoggett]

@bloodline

I seem to recall that Harald suggested AROS as the base OS for Amithlon (instead of Linux). But Bernie wasn't happy with that.

That's a new one on me, and it makes no sense if you think about it. Why replace a mature well supported kernel that the programmer is well versed in with something that is both unfinished and unproven, not to mention rather devoid of driver support?

The rather fuzzy idea HF had was to mix AROS and the UAE emulation engine into a commercial product. Presumably he imagined this as AROS with 68k emulation built-in, certainly not with AROS just providing kernel functionality to start the emulation. Bernie rejected it from two points of view, one being that it was unclear how commercial licensing would be handled, and the second being that such a project would be fraught with difficulties. Let's face it, if it was a sensible and practical idea you guys would have it in your roadmap already.

I have no insider knowledge on the subject, but I suspect Harald might be thinking of using AROS for future Amithlon projects. I think this would be great, as AROS would get drivers and Harald can continue his/the Emulator.

*snigger*
Since Harald does not have the source code to said emulator, one wonders how many "future projects" he can squeeze out of the same product.

More seriously, Harald's objection to Bernie releasing Umilator (or indeed doing any Amiga related work at all) is that all the IP involved in Amithlon is owned jointly by both of them, and neither can use it anywhere else without the other's permission. While most people regard such a claim as spurious, one would have to seek consistency. If Bernie may not use any Amithlon related development or code for any of his projects, then surely Harald cannot contribute any of his own Amithlon contribution to any other project, be it for profit or not.

So it's not a question of whether Harald will respect your license, it's whether Harald has the right to contribute his code in the first place.

Please, I don't want to get into political arguments about Amithlon, because I simply don't care. The whole incident was ugly and I may not like the way certain people behaved, but that has nothing to do with AROS.

"I'm alright Jack"... but I'll let that pass.

AROS relies not only on the contributors' respecting the AROS license, but also on the contributors' honesty in stating that they have the right to contribute said code into the AROS tree.

The integrity of AROS as a project depends on the integrity of those who contribute to it. Allow that to be tainted and everyone involved will get painted with the same brush.