– by Tina Gasperson –
When CP/M enthusiast Tim Olmstead died from cancer on 9/11/01, the Unofficial CP/M Web site he had been maintaining had to be taken down because of licensing issues with the software collection. Now, Lineo has granted unrestricted use of the technology and the site is back up. CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers)* is important because it was the first generic operating system for microcomputers. It appeared n 1974, according to a 1981 BYTE magazine article. It is the precursor to DOS. Prior to its creation, each type of hardware or “brand” of computer had its unique operating system. With CP/M, for the first time, any application could run on any kind of hardware, on top of CP/M.

*There is some debate about what CP/M actually stands for. Some claim it is an acronym for “Control Program for Microprocessors,” and others maintain is it “Control Program/Monitor.” According to the comp.os.cpm FAQ, CP/M creator Gary Kildall referred to the OS in public as “Control Program for Microcomputers.

The other DOSes

In an interesting sidenote to CP/M development, and as noted in “The History of MSDOS” written by Leven Antov, in 1980 IBM began searching for an operating system for their upcoming IBM PC. They originally intended to use CP/M and approached Digital Research, Kildall’s employer. Accounts differ about what happened to snafu that deal, but because it didn’t go through, IBM contacted a small company called Microsoft. Microsoft did not have its own 8086 operating system to sell, so it worked up a deal to license Seattle Computer Product’s (SCP) 86-DOS OS, which purportedly was written as a 16-bit clone of CP/M because SCP was tired of waiting for Digital Research to release its own 8086 CP/M version. Microsoft purchased all the rights to 86-DOS in 1981, renamed it MS-DOS, and IBM called it PC-DOS.

Back to CP/M

In 1996, Caldera purchased the rights to all of Digital Research’s technology from Novell, who reportedly had dropped plans to come up with its own version of DOS. Caldera wanted to use DR-DOS (Digital Research disk operating system), Digital Research’s evolution of CP/M, in its embedded technology. The rights to CP/M software belonged to Caldera also, but Tim Olmstead approached Caldera to get permission to publish CP/M software on the ‘Net and allow access to it for personal, non-commercial use.

Eventually, Caldera’s thin clients division, the one that was using all the Digital Research technology, spun off into a separate company called Lineo. This new company took ownership of the rights to DR-DOS and CP/M with it. As time went on, Lineo needed this technology less and less as its embedded applications relied more and more on Linux and less on DOS. Lineo states, at the DRDOS Web site: “Lineo is no longer developing or supporting the DR-DOS products. The source code for DR-DOS is available, and may be purchased by contacting a member of the Lineo Sales Team.”

There was no mention of CP/M. Olmstead was clear about protecting the CP/M archive from abuse and possible legal troubles from Caldera/Lineo: he asked that the site be taken down in the event of his death. Only in his early fifties, he’d been ill with cancer for months. When Olmstead passed away on September 11, 2001, Gaby Chaudry, the host of the site complied with his wishes:

From: chaudry@gaby.de (Gaby Chaudry)
Newsgroups: comp.os.cpm
Subject: Unofficial CP/M Website will be shut down tonight
Date: 12 Sep 2001 01:51:45 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com/
Lines: 17
Message-ID: 
NNTP-Posting-Host: 62.138.25.30
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Trace: posting.google.com 1000284706 12033 127.0.0.1 (12 Sep 2001 08:51:46 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 12 Sep 2001 08:51:46 GMT


Dear all!

It was Tim Olmstead's personal wish to shut down the Unofficial CP/M
web site after his death. Respecting this, I will do so tonight.
Unfortunately there are still no news from Caldera/Lineo, whom I asked
for a new license (Tim's license was personalized). Anyway, the
material is not lost: I will password-protect the download directory -
and if there should ever be a new license, re-open it.
Some other parts of the site which weren't under license protection of
Caldera (like e.g. the Digital Research Library), will remain, even if
not under the name of the "Unofficial CP/M Website".
For further information you can check out http://www.cpm.z80.de this
evening.

Tim, we will miss you!

Gaby Chaudry

The site was down only a few weeks. On October 19th, Lineo effectively cancelled the old Caldera license by emailing this notice to Chaudry, which is posted on the Unofficial CP/M site:

Subject:          Re: Unofficial CP/M Website/licensing of CP/M material
To:               gaby@gaby.de
Date sent:        Fri, 19 Oct 2001 10:36:31 -0600


Let this email represent a right to use, distribute, modify, enhance and
otherwise make available in a nonexclusive manner the CP/M technology as
part of the "Unofficial CP/M Web Site" with its maintainers, developers and
community.

I further state that as Chairman and CEO of Lineo, Inc. that I have the
right to do offer such a license.

Lineo and its affiliates, partners and employees make no warranties of any
kind with regards to this technology and its usefulness or lack thereof.


---
Bryan Sparks
CEO   Lineo, Inc.
http://www.lineo.com

So the CP/M software appears quite Open Source now, available for use, modification, and redistribution by anyone who chooses to do so.

MSNBC reports that NASA’s next shuttle launch will be the space agency’s first wartime launch and will have unprecedented security.

CNet reports that “transistors, the microscopic circuits that animate semiconductors, are going to be flipping off and on a trillion times a second in a few years, a prospect that is forcing Intel back to the drawing board.”

From CNN: “A European treaty to combat the growing menace of cybercrime will give law enforcers broad international reach but will not be a “Big Brother” type agency, the Council of Europe (CoE) said Friday.”

“GNOME is not an independent software project; it is a part of the GNU
system. This means GNOME does not exist just for its own success. It
has a purpose: to provide the GNU system with a desktop. So while we
should try to make GNOME successful (all else being equal), that’s not
the highest goal of the work on GNOME.”Subject:
Questions
Date:
Sun, 25 Nov 2001 17:29:39 -0700 (MST)
From:
Richard Stallman
To:
foundation-list@gnome.org

> 1) Why are you running for Board of Directors?

For the sake of closer connections between GNOME and the rest of the
GNU Project.

> 2) Do you have leadership and committee experience? If so, please explain.

I’ve led the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation since their
initiation. Looking around at the GNU/Linux system and the free
software community, we’ve come pretty far.

> 3) How familiar are you with the day-to-day happenings of GNOME? How much
> do you follow and participate in the main GNOME mailing lists?

I have not followed them before. I am starting now.

> 4) One of the primary tasks of the Board of Directors is to act as a
> liason between the GNOME Foundation and other organizations and companies
> to find out how the two groups can work together to their mutual benefit.
> Do you feel you would be good at understanding other people and companies
> and finding ways that GNOME can collaborate with other companies and
> organizations to benefit both groups and their users?

I’ve been doing exactly this for the GNU Project for years.

> 6) The board meets for one hour every two weeks to discuss a handful of
> issues. Thus, it is very important that the board can very quickly and
> concisely discuss each topic and come to concensus on each item for
> discussion. Are you good at working with others, who sometimes have very
> differing opinions than you do, to reach concensus and agree on actions?

People have given me have a reputation for being uncompromising. Much
of this reputation comes from people who disagree with me on basic
questions of freedom and wish I would not stand firm for them. On
those questions I am resolute. I also insist that people give the GNU
Project credit for its work. Those who don’t stand up for their
rights don’t tend to get much respect; I want GNU to get respect.

On purely practical questions I have years of experience making deals.
Once someone actually denounced me in public for offering to exchange
concessions with him so that we could come to agreement–i.e., because
I suggested that we search for a compromise. (I laughed at the
contrast between this and my “uncompromising” reputation.) Which
other candidate can say the same?

> 8) Do you consider yourself diplomatic? Would you make a good
> representative for the GNOME Foundation to the Membership, media, public,
> and organizations and corporations the GNOME Foundation works with?

By nature, I am not diplomatic at all. But over the years I’ve
learned, from necessity, a fair level of self control. For several
years I’ve maintained useful working relationships with people at
companies such as IBM and Sun, even at the same time as I disapprove
of some of the things those companies do.

>From time to time I face the ticklish task of asking a complete
stranger to change the license of his software package. Making this
request is like waking up a dragon to ask to borrow its hoard: the
developer is likely to find the request impertinent and could easily
get angry. Nonetheless, I succeed most of the time.

In our community I often encounter personal insults, sometimes simply
reflecting personal enmity, sometimes used as a tactic. You know what
I mean. Could you face such hostility for years and respond as
dispassionately as this?

> 9) Will you represent the interests of GNOME and the GNOME Foundation over
> all other personal or corporate interests you may represent?

All personal and corporate interests, certainly. But there are two
higher interests that rightfully apply to GNOME: the GNU system, and
free software.

GNOME is not an independent software project; it is a part of the GNU
system. This means GNOME does not exist just for its own success. It
has a purpose: to provide the GNU system with a desktop. So while we
should try to make GNOME successful (all else being equal), that’s not
the highest goal of the work on GNOME.

The GNU system does not exist just for its own success either. It has
a purpose: to spread freedom and community to all computer users. So
while people working on GNOME should try to make GNU successful (all
else being equal), that’s not the highest goal either. The highest
goal is that software should be free.

If some day GNOME, GCC, GNU Emacs, and all of GNU are obsolete and
forgotten, but computer users generally are free to share and change
the software they use, these programs will have done their job well.
If, on the other hand, GNOME and the rest of the GNU system are widely
used, but mainly in combination with proprietary software, they will
have succeeded only part-way, and a big task will remain ahead of us.

We should elect people to the board that will keep the goal of free
software in mind, and exert their leadership on its behalf.

As long as GNOME and GNU are closely connected in the public mind with
the freedom and community they make enable, success for GNOME, as for
GNU generally, will tend to encourage the spread of freedom in many
ways. We have every reason to make GNOME succeed. We just have to
keep the larger issues in mind while deciding how to do it.

> 10) Will you be willing and have the available time to take on and
> complete various tasks that the Board needs accomplished?

My time is tight, but GNOME is important, so I will give it the time
that it needs.

From NewsAlert: “It’s been a tough year for Linux companies. Those that didn’t go bust announced large layoffs as investors realized that businesses built around a free operating system weren’t poised for aggressive growth. The Linux Hatchery at this month’s Comdex convention was home to just two companies, down from about 150 last year.”

– By Grant Gross –

Just weeks after the U.S. government entered into settlement negotiations in the Microsoft antitrust case, a couple of European nations are embracing Open Source in new ways.

This week, The French Agency for e-Government announced it would enforce open standards and promote Open Source and Free Software. European Linux groups applauded the move, saying it’d help guarantee open government. At the same time, the German Ministry of Economics and Technology voiced support for a study that advised against patents on software that does not have a technical effect, the U.S. model of granting patents. The ministry said broadening software patents could stifle the Open Source movement.

Meanwhile, NewsForge’s Robin “Roblimo” Miller noted an Evans Data Corporation study, which said North American developers have been slower to embrace Linux than developers elsewhere, although the numbers seem to be growing.

Does Dell like Linux or not?

Computer-maker Dell caught some flack this week for its views about Linux. If you remember, Dell announced this summer that it would no longer ship Linux on its desktops. However, this week, Dell announced it was shipping Red Hat 7.2 on servers and “workstations.” For those of you who can’t figure out what the difference is between a desktop and a workstation, you’re not alone. Basically, a desktop is a low-end home computer, and a workstation, such as Dell’s Precision line, is a higher-end business machine, and Dell hasn’t stopped shipping Red Hat on those, according to the company.

That didn’t stop The Register from reporting on a letter Dell sent to its customers in which the company tried to clarify its Linux stance to Linux faithful. The headline seemed a good summary: “Dell begs for mercy after ditching desktop Linux.”

NewsForge business columnist Jack Bryar also gigged Dell for its “Linux everywhere” slogan, saying if Linux is everywhere, why is it so difficult to buy a Linux system from Dell?

Stallman on license “freedom”

If you’ve ever wondered what Richard Stallman and his comrades over at the Free Software Foundation think about a developer’s freedom to choose licenses, there’s a new essay from Stallman and the FSF’s Bradley Kuhn on that very topic. From the essay: “However, one so-called freedom that we do not advocate is the ‘freedom to choose any license you want for software you write’. We reject this because it is really a form of power, not a freedom.”

Speaking of Stallman, he recently applied for membership in the Debian Linux (or should we say Debian GNU/Linux?) project. That’s a development worth watching.

The continuing saga …

Yes, most NewsForge/Linux.com readers know that Microsoft’s Bill Gates has claimed that he in effect started the Open Source movement. PBS.org’s Robert X. Cringely offered another perspective this week that’s worth reading. I could claim I’m the best and most handsome technology writer ever, and no one would believe me, but the scary thing is some people might believe Gates. I suppose we can only laugh.

Newly reviewed

Reader Dave Madeley took a look at Red Hat 7.2 and called it a powerful operating system that’s highly customizable and very flexible.

There were a couple of reviews of Mandrake 8.1. The Duke of URL looked at the Powerpack 8.1 version and found it easy to use, fast and stable. There’s not a better time to try Mandrake, the reviewer says.

LinuxWorld.com wasn’t quite as impressed with Mandrake’s famed install, with the writer taking four tries to install 8.1.

New and cool

Among the new Open Source-related software releases this week:

• Galeon 1.0, the Web browser.

• OpenSSH 3.0.1.

• Evolution 0.99.2.

• KDE 2.2.2.

• Mozilla 0.9.6.

New at NewsForge and Linux.com

Other stories that NewsForge and Linux.com reported first this week:

Tina Gasperson reports on Caldera’s Volution Manager, and how it could help IT departments manage their enterprise stuff.

Miller reports on the progress of NetBeans, the Open Source project aiming to help developers produce Open Source or Java applications quickly.

Stock news

Open Source-related stocks and the Nasdaq stock market had a mixed week, with Nasdaq up slightly, from 1898.58 to 1903.20, during the holiday-shortened trading week. That 5-point hike was an increase of less than one half of 1 percent for the week, for all of you keeping score at home. That was better news than the direction of most Open Source company stocks, most of which dropped slightly, with exceptions including France’s MandrakeSoft and IBM.

Still, some analysts are predicting a bull market, judging by the rise in the Dow Jones and Nasdaq markets since lows earlier in the year.

Here’s how Open Source and related stocks ended this past week:

Company Name	Symbol	11/16 Close	11/23 Close
Apple	AAPL	18.97	19.84
Borland Software Int’l	BORL	13.80	13.50
Caldera International	CALD	0.57	0.50
Hewlett-Packard	HWP	21.50	20.94
IBM	IBM	114.50	115.35
MandrakeSoft	4477.PA	e5.00	e5.84
Red Hat	RHAT	6.00	5.84
Sun Microsystems	SUNW	13.39	12.81
TiVo	TIVO	6.00	5.80
VA Linux Systems	LNUX	2.90	2.43
Wind River Systems	WIND	18.79	18.57

The Seattle Times discusses the increasingly obnoxious tactics of spammers and where to report spammers to the government.

Anonymous Reader writes: “Interactive Studio released Qube 3p. Qube is the multiplatform desktop environment. Now, it supports 3 of most popular OS all over the world such as Linux, DOS, Windows. All applications for Qube run without need of recompiling on all platforms as fast as it goes on level of machine codes. It’s the new technology included in Qube. Qube is the great solution for small machines, because of small hardware requirements. Check the new development center for Qube at www.qubeos.com now !”

Anonymous Reader writes: “In this guest column at DesktopLinux.com, high school mathematics teacher Gary Frankenbery comments on the growing cadre of high quality — and continually improving — options for high-powered word processing in Linux.”