Jim,
Quote:

Sorry for ranting but I have to get this of my chest. Please read on and read the message twice as I will try to do more than ranting :(

Please guys, if anything is stopping cooperation it is you guys. I think the rest of the amiga world is ready to leave the past behind. I regret that is does not seem to be the case for some of the MorphOS guys.
Taking a step back. A guy who was once a big Amiga person but is out of the scene for a very long time makes some comment on a forum; a guy who no longer has any amiga connection except that he was working for it when Commodore went bust; a guy who has just sold his last Amiga remnants. That guy makes a comment about the legality of the Exec code of MorphOS.
After this several fora are filled with messages with how Ben Hermans is the devil, that this guy above has to retract his statements, how Amiga Inc. doesn't own the Amiga IP rights etc, etc. This all without a single comment from guys currently linked with AmigaOS4 etc. All posts are made by people linked to MorpOS or supporters of the platform.

All this gives me the impression that one the main reasons of existence of MorphOS is to be anti-AmigaOS4 and anti-Hyperion. In my mind not a very good basis to develop an OS on.

It is true that some people at Hyperion and Amiga Inc. believe the C Exec code - developed at H&P I think and on which the MorphOS Exec is based - is illegal. They do believe they have prove for it and not just hearsay. Also Amiga Inc. is the owner and is the only company to be able to take legal action.
It is also true that the MorphOS devs believe they have made a clean room implementation and all code is legal. With that the case it should be possible to move and leave the past behind.
Would you guys think about the following: make site on morphos-team documenting your stance - something along the line: "Some people claim MorhpOS code is illegal. Using our development practices this ... and this ... we do believe everything is legal. If somebody disagree he can contact us with proove or take other actions."
Then if somebody make a comment somewhere just post a reply with a reference to the page and move on.

I also fail to see how Amiga Inc. being a valid owner of Amiga IP rights or not is relevant. Either the MorphOS code is OK or not OK, independent of Amiga Inc. owning the IP.

Each of the parties is convinced of their own stance; so one party asking the other party to retract their stance is just a road block to possible cooperation or even peaceful co-existence.

Even if Amiga Inc. would once come out of it's shelter and start to sue I don't think there is much to worry about; given their track record of past court case that is . At that time it would be a good occasion to test the validity of their claim for Amiga IP ownership. I personally don't see that happen, so IMO one reason the more for MorhpOS to just to move on.

Also the 'probably illegal' comment of Evert in a legal court filing has long been discussed off-the-record by me with him. I notified afterwards the AROS devs that I don't feel any reason to be worried and we (AROS) moved on. We don't need other guys taking a stance for AROS and beating on dead horses.

I already feel a little bit guilty of posting this but I do think you guys needed a mirror to see how the outside world (outside of MorpOS) can perceive you.
Most people will know I am a main AROS developer but I would like to use the open source AROS code to bring the whole Amiga world closer together in the future. As AROS dev I try to refrain from commenting on AOS4 or MorhpOS (especially bad things) but as this legacy seems to interfere with my other goal I could not stop posting this message.
Also want to let you know it does not change anything with my plans for MorphOS etc. as I sincerely hope some perseverance from me will help to get this bad blood out of the amiga community.

greets,
Staf.

PS: Saw Jim's reply to my post on Ric Elias; feel even a little more guilty now...


[ Edited by Fats 27.04.2011 - 21:48 ]