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MISC: Pegasus Mail - port to linux



Hi everybody

Pegasus is one of my favorite e-mail clients - and I saw this today 
on Pegasus Mail's (recently redesigned, now great looking) website.

The wording is not so great, and is likely to trigger another 
licensing discussion <g> - but -- is there any license which would 
suit David Harris' requirements?  He ~does~ have a point or two btw

http://www.pmail.com/sundry/pmlinux.htm for the full text.


Pegasus Mail and Linux

--- cut ---

... Now, while I'm quite enthusiastic about the idea of a Linux 
version of Pegasus Mail, I'm much less enthusiastic about the idea 
of open source. To me it is an unproven concept, with the obvious 
potential to produce low-quality applications - this is not to demean 
existing open source initiatives, many of which are quite good; it's 
merely an observation about team programming in general, 
especially when the team members are widely-spread, and 
constantly changing. At this point, I am not willing to consider 
making Pegasus Mail an open source project, but I am willing to 
keep an open mind about the idea.  

At present (February 2000), we see two possible ways of producing 
a version of Pegasus Mail for Linux:

1: Via a porting layer   ...

There are some porting layers available for Linux - most notably 
one called WINE - but they are still rather incomplete. I am 
watching developments in this area with considerable interest - I 
believe that in the long run, using a good porting layer when one is 
available will give me the greatest likelihood of realizing a Linux 
version of Pegasus Mail.

2: Via a private licensing arrangement   While I am not willing to 
make Pegasus Mail an open source project, I would be willing to 
license the source code at no cost to a suitably-constituted 
development team who would be willing to take on the 
redevelopment process. This would have to be done under well-
defined non-disclosure terms, by a competent, sincere and 
dedicated team, and I would have to retain ownership of the source 
code and the Linux version derived from it. I do not know if an 
initiative like this is possible, but welcome approaches from anyone 
interested in discussing it with me.

David Harris <David.Harris@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Owner/Author, Pegasus Mail and Mercury Systems,
February 18th 2000.

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Suresh Ramasubramanian + President, CAUCE India
Stopping Spam in India + http://india.cauce.org
    Bachelor (n):  a thing of beauty and a boy forever.