Motif 1.2.x & X11R5

Mark P. Line markline at henson.cc.wwu.edu
Tue Jan 11 23:43:49 EST 1994


On Tue, 11 Jan 1994, Kenn Gardels (CEDR-REGIS) wrote:

> Motif isn't a commercial product in the same way that a database system or
> a word processor is.  It is more like Unix - there is licensed code, a
> trademark, and some special libraries for programming, but all these come
> "free" when you buy the workstation.

I beg to differ. I run GRASS on a generic i486 system under Linux. Motif
not included, nor desired. Since this configuration is the least expensive
platform for GRASS around (as far as I can tell), I would be *extremely*
surprised if the user base did not increase dramatically in proportion to
the other platforms. I don't think very many Linux users will be
interested in acquiring a Motif runtime license, just so they can run
XGRASS legally, even if they can download the binaries and don't need the
Motif libraries. They'll probably tend to use public-domain tools to build
their own GUI interfaces, rather than commit themselves to Motif.

I noticed that GRASS 4.2 is supposed to include an object-oriented GUI:
does anybody know if that's going to be based on Motif or other
proprietary software as well?

>Software compiled with motif can be distributed without restriction.

Is there word from the horse's mouth on this? My understanding from OSF
was that you have to have a Motif runtime license if you use software
which incorporates Motif code (such as XGRASS).

-- Mark

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