Motif isn't a commercial product in the same way that a database
system or
a word processor is. It is more like Unix - there is licensed code,
a
trademark, and some special libraries for programming, but all these
come
"free" when you buy the workstation. All the workstation vendors
except
Sun have included Motif for some time; Sun has committed to it as
well.
If you can't wait, you can get a Motif license for making your own
code
for $49. Software compiled with motif can be distributed without
restriction.
I agree, GRASS cannot become dependent on commercial products, but I
don't
think that this is an issue for Motif.
I disagree with Kenn Gardels in the sense that Motif is not *public*.
It isn't free, but at $49 it isn't expensive either. The real problem
is that it is not public domain software ftp'able from your nearest
archive. Sortware doesn't have to make a lot of money to be
*commercial*; its distribution just has to be restricted to those who
have paid for it. Since our site includes a number of workhorse Sun3
machines that will never acquire Motif "free", and since we do not
presently wish to buy a new operating system for our other machines, we
cannot compile xgrass. That in itself is not too tragic, but it would
be a shame to see any other GRASS functionality go the same way.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Michael Camann camann@dial.pick.uga.edu
Department of Entomology camann@phoenix.cs.uga.edu
University of Georgia (706) 542-1388
Athens, GA 30602 (706) 542-2276
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%