in reply to Re^4: Getting Fed Up with ActiveState
in thread Getting Fed Up with ActiveState

If the corporate clients did not wish to use the gcc compiler that was being (hypothetically) shipped with ActivePerl, then they would simply ignore its presence and proceed with "business as normal".

Aaah but ..., would their security policies allow that? I know of (having worked for them) many corporates that simply wouldn't consider distributing a compiler--anyone's compiler--to their general purpose workstations. Full stop. It would not be allowed to happen.

So, unless AS produced two distributions, one with and one without, these corporates and government departments alike, would cease distributing Perl to workstations.

Likewise, even in their IT departments where the developers workstation image routinely incorporates development tools, distributing a second C compiler is likely to produce conflicts--libraries, header trees et al--and that could break their existing, carefully tested toolset. You doubt this? See Re: Re(2): Usage of tools for an example of the extremes many corporates go to ensure standardised toolsets. This is not uncommon.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal?
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

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Re^6: Getting Fed Up with ActiveState
by syphilis (Archbishop) on Dec 02, 2006 at 12:56 UTC
    So, unless AS produced two distributions, one with and one without, these corporates and government departments alike, would cease distributing Perl to workstations

    Ok ... I've now a better appreciation of where you're coming from. The smart thing for AS to do (assuming they can legally do this) is to therefore provide the two distributions, as you suggest. Those corporates/government bodies that freaked on distributing the compiler would simply distribute the non-compiler version. No problem for them ... and no problem for AS (that a little extra disk space won't fix).

    Cheers,
    Rob
[reply]
      ... and no problem for AS (that a little extra disk space won't fix).

      That's far from the end of it. AS make their living by providing paid support for their distributions. What this would amount to is adding a completely new product line to their inventory, and for a small company, that's a distinctly non-trivial exercise.

      They first need to ensure that they can support a GNU(?) licenced product?

      • Can they legally re-distribute it?
      • How does it affect their existing licencing agreements?
      • Is there any conflict between the licencing of GCC and the licencing of the other parts of the distribution?
      • Do they have the skills in house to support such an animal?
      • Strawberry Perl has a list of unresolved issues. If AS distributed a similar product, they would have to resolve those issues first. Especially if they are to expect to earn revenue from it by supporting it.
      • ... ? (IANAL. Maybe some of these are non-issues. But I bet there is a lot more that my 30 seconds of thought haven't covered.)

      Disk space is really the last consideration here.

      Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
      Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal?
      "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
      In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
[reply]
        Can they legally re-distribute it?
        How does it affect their existing licencing agreements?
        Is there any conflict between the licencing of GCC and the licencing of the other parts of the distribution?

        Sheesh ... you've gone and lost me again :-)

        Aren't those precisely the issues that adamk was raising ? (Is it just me, or have we come full circle ?)

        Cheers,
        Rob
[reply]

In Section Meditations