Now that things have died down a bit, I shall give my response to this situation
and all the rude/damning/inconsiderate/untrue things that have been written about me.
First and foremost - let's gain some true perspective on everything. Think about what
all of this truly means. By "all of this" I'm referring to the following : XBox, emulation,
GPL, XDK, BIOS files, source code, etc. There are people that would argue that some
of those topics ( or certain facets of those topics ) are very important, but one must
remember that it's all relative. What is important to one person is not necessarily
important to another. Please note - I am not saying that when two people have
differing priorities that it is OK for one of them to totally disregard the other.
For example, let's say you read about a child in a third-world country that just died
from starvation. It's sad, but since it's one of those depressing tidbits that
we constantly hear, it's usually dismissed almost immediately. Now imagine that
you are the parent of that dead child. Suddenly things are quite different.
If the above analogy seems spurious to you, then I'll use the specifics from my
real life as it pertains to this GPL issue. Here's a short list of the things
that are important to me:
- Making sure my three kids are fed, educated, healthy, and happy
- Spending time with my wife to constantly remind her that she's important to me
- Ensuring my 82-year-old father takes his correct medication at the correct
time and does not aimlessly wander the streets at night
- Keeping track of the amount of audio/visual stimulation my kids receive
- Trying to diplomatically/unobtrusively steer my oldest away from a girl
he's been dating whom I am convinced is bad-news
- Being there for a friend of mine going through a messy divorce right now
- Trying not to be too preoccupied with my own mortality ever since my best
friend for over 30 years died last June of a heart attack
- Then, of course, there's my real job
Now, please tell me where this GPL issue should fit into my list of priorities.
While I ported, I never gave any thought to the GPL and it has never come up before now.
I have received no complaints from any authors of the emulators I've ported to the XBox
except for PCSX. As soon as I discovered that someone felt wronged by the situation,
however, I took steps to make things right. I spoke with Pete and with
Linuzappz to find out what exactly they would like me to do in order to make amends,
and then I did it. That apparently was not enough for some people. Suddenly there are
intense discussions about how I violated the GPL and that I'm some kind of horrible
person who hides in the shadows and hoards source code. I try to excuse most
of this and chalk it up to the ignorance of youth. However, I cannot let this
issue progress any further due to the sheer amount of FUD and crazy remarks that
has been spread.
Some may ask, "Why haven't you released the source code before now?" Firstly,
as I said before I never gave things like the GPL any thought. Furthermore,
when I first started porting, I had no place to deposit things like source code.
The people distributing the binaries were only interested in the binaries. They
didn't care about the source code, and no one was asking for it. Later, after I
had done a number of ports, I finally got a web page together. However, the
web page was not suitable for having a bunch of downloadable files on there. For
one thing, if the bandwidth exceeded a certain amount, it would be noticed and
the owner of the domain would decide it's time to put popup ads on it. If that
happened, I would not want to stay there anymore. Ever since this PCSX ordeal started,
the xport.xb-power.com webpage has been up and down. That was with only three
relatively small source packages. The final reason I never bothered to release
source is because of the work involved. The source for various porting projects
resides on three different computers and I've made structural changes to common
files along the way which would require going back, merging the appropriate files,
recompiling, and making sure it all still works as it should. It's not a small task,
and it's tedious work. So excuse me very much for not being motivated to do grunt
work on what is supposed to be a hobby. Why didn't I release *all* the source code
to the PCSX port when this issue arose? I was using code that I wrote while working
for a real company. Since I wrote it for the company, it technically belongs
to them. If I distributed the source without rewriting those sections, I'd be in
*real* legal trouble if it ever got back to the company for which I used to work.
This is also why it has taken several days to get everything organized.
On another topic, I believe I recall that someone called me something along the lines of a
"one-man warez group" who ports GPL software for some kind of ego-trip. This is
absolutely inexcusable. For those who are actually interested in knowing exactly *why*
I have done these XBox ports, here it is:
- It's a pleasant distraction (programming for fun instead of for work)
- It makes my kids happy
- I get to pretend I'm Santa Claus whenever I make something available to the public
Some people may find that last one to be sappy or lacking in credibility, but
the truth of the matter is that I have a soft spot for kids. Let's face it -
the vast majority of the people using these XBox emulators are kids 18 and under.
I like the idea that I'm spreading a little happiness to children.
Oh, there's also the benefit of bragging to my middle-aged friends that "eye 4m
soop3r-ub3r 1ee7 wid 4ll da r0mz j00 n33d!!!!" Please. Most of my friends
don't know about this hobby of mine and they really would not care about it if they
did. The only personal validation I want or need from teenage boys is that which comes
from my own teenage son.
Someone also accused me of passing these ports off as "mine." Rubbish. I have
never said or written anything to that effect. I have never taken credit for
anything other than the porting work I've done. I have never accepted any
form of compensation or remuneration for any port, nor would I ever simply because
most of the work belongs to someone else.
Finally, there is the issue of courtesy and manners. No one likes to be told
what to do. It does not matter if what you want done is "the right thing to do"
or not. There are much better ways to go about getting what you want than saying
things like "you have to release the source code now!" or "I sure hope the other authors
come after you - in fact I'm going to write them an email!" There's an old saying
that rings true in this case: "You catch more flies with honey than vinegar." Again,
this probably has a lot to do with the impetuousness of youth and I try to let it
slide. These people need to realize, however, that this is not the way to go
through life. The common knee-jerk reaction to having demands thrown in one's face
is to immediately go on the defensive. If I *were* the kind of person that people
have been saying I am, then no one would have ever received the source code after
comments like that. I would have simply decided, "you can't tell *me* what to do."
I still have very valid reservations about releasing the source code simply because
I am reinforcing bad behavior. Behavior : bitch, moan, threaten in order to get
source code released. Reward : source code is released. Therefore, the behavior
continues. This possibility still bothers me a great deal because I suspect
that is how it will be interpreted by many people. I cannot be a parent to
everyone, however.
So there it is. For those that are interested, the source code for everything
is now on the #xbins FTP server. (XBOX/apps/emulators/xport_src) Everything
you need to compile the XBEs is included there. Please do not ask for
"technical support" wrt compiling. There is probably some tweaking that you'll need
to do in order to compile some of them, but anyone who is somewhat competent
at programming should not have any problems with it. No, I have not stopped
working on these ports. I just wanted to get one more big project done (PSX).
Afterwards, I will go back and start addressing outstanding issues with the others.
I truly hope that all the naysayers have learned something about how not to judge
someone's character from this. I think a lot of the people in these forums could be much
nicer to others. (They could also be much more patient.)
This post has been edited by XPort: May 16 2003, 04:42 PM
