Why maintain Metacard

[Scott Raney]

On  Fri, 11 Jul 2003 Richard MacLemale <rmaclema at tampabay.rr.com> wrote:

> Let me see if I understand this correctly, and if not, someone correct me...

OK ;-)

> 1.  The MetaCard engine was bought by RunRev.
> 2.  Under RunRev, the same rules about the engine still apply... Meaning you
> can get the engine itself for free - it's the whole RAD toolset that you pay
> for.

Sort of: a limited function version of the engine is free (the Starter
Kit), not the full unlimited-script-length version.
  
> 3.  RunRev will continue to improve the engine and the engine will be
> improved by the same folks who have always done it, meaning Scott Raney and
> whoever else.
> 4.  The MetaCard user interface will be maintained by volunteers who will
> keep it up to date with the latest Rev/MC engine.

Right.

> 5.  The volunteer-sponsored MetaCard-based GUI under some sort of open
> source deal, so it's not going to cost money, but it's going to be updated
> and maintained by volunteers.

Right, but it's the the UI that's open source, not the engine.

> So, hypothetically speaking, say I've got a friend who is interested in
> MetaCard but never wanted to put out a grand to buy it.  The engine has
> always been a free thing.  Now the GUI is open sourced, and free.  Does this
> mean that MetaCard 2.5 is now free?  And if so, wouldn't that put a bit of a
> damper on Revolution?  Making MetaCard an open source free alternative?  I
> must be understanding this wrong.

You've got it right *except* that this is already the way it is: the
Starter Kit is already free.  What the license you pay for does is
allow you to write long scripts.

> But if the improvements in the engine, at that time, are going to also
> impact a free, open source version of MetaCard, then... Well then, couldn't
> you just use Open Source MetaCard and save the money?

If your proposing open sourcing the engine too, this'd be a very big
step, and not one that anyone is contemplating AFAIK.

>  The biggest
> difference between Open Source MetaCard and Revolution will be the extra
> add-ons that Rev gives and the price tag.  For most users, the extra
> add-ons, help, support, and documentation would be worth the money.  But
> Open Source MetaCard could end up developing quite a following, too,
> couldn't it?  Some open source projects have gone on to become very
> successful...

Using an obsolete version of MetaCard as a sort of loss-leader and
then selling RR as the commercial upgrade to that is similar to the
approach taken by other quasi-open-source tools like Qt and MySQL, but
is not the approach that RR will be taking (nor the one I'd
recommend).  You'll see more about how they plan to develop "quite a
following" in the weeks and months ahead.
  Regards,
    Scott

> -- 
> :)
> Richard MacLemale
> Network Administrator
> J. W. Mitchell High School

********************************************************
Scott Raney  raney at metacard.com  http://www.metacard.com
MetaCard: You know, there's an easier way to do that...