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RealPC: Abandonware & Open-Source
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Cardiff, Wales
Status:
Offline
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RealPC slipped quietly into the night.
OK, we knew it was basically dead, but FWB have officially discontinued it.
Thanks FWB - you bought possibly the best emulator on the Mac and smothered it. I won't say what I think F.W.B really stands for. 
Anyway, as it's officially abandonware, it would be a good time to ask them to do the honorable thing and release the source code the community.
http://www.fwb.com/html/support.html
Click that mail link!
Chris
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Jun 2000
Status:
Offline
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Originally posted by clebin:
Anyway, as it's officially abandonware, it would be a good time to ask them to do the honorable thing and release the source code the community.
Officially abandonware? I've always thought apps were considered 'abandonware' after they were off the market for 3-5 years. Even then, it's still not legal to distribute anything without permission from the authors.
All technicalness aside, I think releasing the source code would be a great idea. I'd love a free x86 emulator.
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Oct 1999
Status:
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Free and open source x86 emulator? Its called Bochs:
http://bochs.sourceforge.net
It might be a bit confusing to configure, but I'm using it to run NT 4 Server on my dual G4/450 without problems. The only thing that doesn't work is network card, I don't think there's a hook to the Mac TCP/IP stack for it.
Dan
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Rochester, NY
Status:
Offline
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Originally posted by normyzo:
Free and open source x86 emulator? Its called Bochs:
http://bochs.sourceforge.net
It might be a bit confusing to configure, but I'm using it to run NT 4 Server on my dual G4/450 without problems. The only thing that doesn't work is network card, I don't think there's a hook to the Mac TCP/IP stack for it.
Dan
Slow as all hell on a G4 1 GHz.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
Status:
Offline
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The way I heard it, "abandonware" is software where the company owning it has gone out of business and, as far as anyone knows, the intellectual-property rights were never acquired by anyone. Technically it is still illegal to distribute such software, but there is no one to press charges so it falls into the "unenforceable" category.
RealPC is not abandonware. I agree that since FWB has formally announced that they won't be doing anything with it anymore, Open-Sourcing it would be a good and honorable thing to do, from a moral standpoint. However, from a legal standpoint, it's their decision whether or not to go ahead and do it.
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You are in Soviet Russia. It is dark. Grue is likely to be eaten by YOU!
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Vancouver, WA
Status:
Offline
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There are other technical/legal reasons that "abandonware" can't always be open-sourced. For one, private source often contains or depends on code that's been licensed from somebody else. That contract may forbid publishing the licensed code or even other code that depends on it. Some of the code might be protected by patents, as well. Excising that code might render the remainder useless, and even if it doesn't, it may require a significant engineering effort to make the code legally safe to give away.
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