We were the first to inform you about the buyout of gobeProductive 3.x by starter FreeRadicalSoftware (headed also by the Gobe CEO) back in August. One of the ideas was to make gobeProductive GPL (a beta Linux version already exists). Unfortunately, it seems that FreeRadicalSoftware might not succeed in this. Read more for Gobe's and FreeRadical's Scott Lindsey's email in the Gobe user mailing list regarding the status, as it was sent by OSNews readers and GP3 users Chris Rupnik and Greg. Update: Gobe's Tom Hoke comments here and Scott Lindsey comments here.From: "Scott Lindsey" (wombat AT gobe DOT com)
To: (gobe-usertalk AT gobe DOT com)
Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2002 1:02 AM
Subject: [gobe-usertalk] FreeRadical> What has happended to the Open sourcing of the code ??
At this time, Free Radical has been unable to raise the money necessary to license the code from Gobe Software Inc. Free Radical is effectively a nonstarter at this point.
Our Take: For those who would suggest something like Blender's Paypal fund, I would argue that it would probably not work for GP3. We don't know the actual amount needed, plus Blender was extremely multi-platform and more popular overall, making the raise of the needed money (~$100k) easier (and it still took them 4 months). Other such efforts, like the recent Pepper one (also more multi-platform than the current GP3), was only got to raise ~$500 USD from the needed $11k so the effort was canceled 2 weeks later. We should hope that FreeRadicalSoftware will evaluate such an option though.
Our Take 2 This could be a great opportunity for the 3 major Linux distros, or any other OS maker, to differentiate itself from the competition by stepping up and helping out with the buyout of this software (even if it means no open sourcing). Surely, we do have OpenOffice and KOffice, but then again, the Linux distro next door has it too. Hey Linux executives that I know you are reading OSNews, think about it. Differentiate yourself from the competition, give an edge on why should I try your distro and not your competitor's. ;-)
