Sun's position on the Lighthouse applications.

[Gregory John Casamento]

Jonathan and Curtis,

As everyone is probably aware, Sun, earlier today, indicated that it will not
release the Lighthouse apps for Mac OS X and that they will "remain in Sun's
morgue."  Please see the following article at The Register:

http://theregister.co.uk/content/4/32963.html

I had, about a month or so ago, started an email dialogue with executives at
Sun to inquire about the possibility of releasing these applications as Free
Software or, at least, Open Source software.   The response, at the time, was a
positive one.

Sun's current position rules out the possibility of Sun releasing these apps as
commercial software, but does not altogether rule out the idea of releasing
them  as Free Software to a community of developers who would be more than
willing to support them.

Sun could reap some benefits from this:

1) The apps would run on Solaris (using GNUstep), Linux (using GNUstep), and
Mac OS X which would give them wide exposure.

2) These applications could be made to interoperate with the Open Office suite
under all of the above platforms.

3) Since there is now a way to bridge Java and ObjC apps, both on GNUstep and
on MOSX it is possible that some of the functionality in these apps could be
used in Java applications as well.

It would be beneficial for Sun to clarify if it is open to releasing these
applications as Free Software or Open Source software.

Also, please see the petition at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/laafs/petition.html

Thank you for your time, GJC

=====
Gregory John Casamento
-- bheron on #gnustep, #linuxstep, & #gormtalk ----------------
Please sign the petition against software patents at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/pasp01/petition.html
Petition to make Lighthouse Application Suite Free Software at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/laafs/petition.html
--- Main Developer of Gorm (featured in April Linux Journal) ---

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