Some people in the community are just control freaks and prefer to keep 15 years old code in their closets.
No, that's not the problem. The problem is that in the end somebody must be willing to buy the code, and somebody must be willing to sell the code.
It seems that we are converging to a situation where we have a seller and a buyer, and apparently a buyer who is interested in further development of the code. I would say that this is quite a positive development, even more so as the current seller (Tobias and Alex) have not made any attempt to create a productive environment in the last ten years that would stimulate or even allow its progression. And we have a buyer who expressed a an interest to create exactly that. So it's an improvement, after all.
That licensing model is completely unfit for the current market and limits access to P96 only for the biggest players. I considered developing a new RTG card for classics but I am unwilling to participate in this absurdity.
Then don't buy it. Once again, not everything has to be free in this universe, even more so as some party is apparently putting money into it. Its *own* money. It's not morally wrong to buy something for money, you know?
Then again - Do you call me a big player? I don't have any money and I didn't put any money into the pot. I only helped a bit establishing contacts, that's all. Do you call "Apollo" a big player? This is also only a group of hobbyists. Yet, there is a seemingly successful negotiation between the parties which came up with a reasonable price (or so I hope). So if "Apollo" is large enough to handle that, why do you believe that you are "too small" for it either?
Currently, we are all just hobbyists working on Amiga stuff whenever our time permits.
Do you believe this is any different for any other player here? I'm a hobbyist, and the people from Apollo are, too. The whole thing just "works" because we came (or will come, hopefully) to the conclusion that the best way of handling the situation is by the exchange of some small green paper sheets. (-:
@Thomas
How about a bounty to open P96 code? If the money is really an issue, this could solve it.
You need two parties for such a deal: A seller, and a buyer. Apparently, you're willing to buy the code? The question is whether the current owner is willing to sell it for such a purpose. I don't know whether the acquisition of P96 is already set in stone, but I somehow doubt that there is any seller in the market that would opt into such a deal. That was my impression, at least.
Even more so, what does it buy you having the code Open Sourced? I would hope that there will be a development environment that encourages people to join the team, so you would get access to the code anyhow. Probably even in exchange of some small green paper slips back into your pocket.
I believe if we get such a deal done, much has been gained, namely again an ongoing development of P96. I don't quite see why that is a problem. It's quite an achievement.
I don't know what the future will bring and whether the current owner has the interest in setting up a development community, but I'm very much for inviting as many trustworthy people into the party as I would love to. But it's not my role to decide that. I can only express my opinion openly, and currently, I have the impression that it has been heard.
Apparently, the negotiations so far worked so well because none of the parties were hard-core Open Source fanatics - we tried to find a pragmatic solution and a compromise that would work fine for everyone in the game. Whether Open Source works or not is a matter of the environment, the players, the users, the personal trust between the parties, the situation around the code, its history, its developers... Given the negotiations, it seems that this was not given for P96. In the end, it looks like it will turn out just fine - it was the matter of pulling the right strings at the right time, and it seems to work. Or that is my impression. We will see. It's not on me to make announcements, I only play a minor role in all of this.
