According to the license, the biggest requirement is that you use it on an open source OS.

AFAIK Unlike Gtk+ or Qt, there are no royalties to pay if you make an honest living with it, but wish to keep your own intellectual property to yourself by not divulging source code.

Elsewhere in this site, it mentions that mods to Open Motif would have to be divulged, but not the source to apps created with it.

Hmm, so if the OpenMotif source is on the CDROM so I can use it to compile libXm.a on Open Source OS`s, is is sufficient to put a notice on the CD that it is illegal to use the OM anyway if someone on a non-OS OS tries to use it anyway?

In other words, if I tell people what is illegal and they do it anyway am I off the hook?

I would not take programing advice from a lawyer, so if in doubt, consult one.

Make sure at least that all of the README files are there, and that things aare clear.

Sure, but I was hoping OM people were reading these posts and that they would just jump in and say whether this was ok with them.

OK, now I getit. Let`s pose it as a question

What is the procedure for distributing OpenMotif
with apps distributed in source form when using
automated install scripts?

Hi,

The license is actually pretty clear on this one. You can do it. There are some words relative to including the license, not fooling with copyrights, making it clear any changes you made, exempting TOG from liability, etc.

But unless I am missing something, why are you including source to Motif? Wouldn`t it be easier to snatch the binaries we created (shared or static) and deliver them with your application? You still have to include the license, and there may be some other minor requirements to address (i.e., exempting The Open Group from all liability in your licenses), but this would be a lot less error prone then having people recompile Motif. There have been several long threads where people have had one difficulty or another making the compile work....

Regards,

Mark

Mark

Hello,

Thanks for the response, Mark.

I distribute my program, with source, on CDROM for many flavors of UNIX. Some have Motif, some do not. A big hassle for the Install script is to figure out the OS and snoop around guessing where libXm.* and the *.h files are. Since Motif is optional on many systems they can wind up most anywhere. But I include the Motif source right with my code then

1) all Install needs to locate is Xt and X11 which are far less problematic;

2) My app would always be using the exact same version of Motif and hence be immune to variations from that variable in target versions;

3) I could finally start using Widgets beyond Motif 1.0 since I would know for sure the target would have a newer version of Motif than that (yes, many sites, particularly SunOS 4.* still just have 1.0 which means that`s all I can use if I want to support these sites, which I do).

4) Some users can not or will not install Motif for whatever reason and this way they still would not have to. They wouldn`t even know Motif was involved (except for the licensing disclaimers I would include for your sake).

Thanks in advance,

Elwood Downey
ecdowney@clearskyinstitute.com

P.S. Boy, typing in this tiny little text box is sure a pain.. any way to post these notes via email rather than your web interface?