Subject: Re: CCL:Open Source scientific software

From: Armel Le Bail <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 03 May 2000 09:36:37 +0200

Jochen wrote :

>If there are no customers, no-one can sell a product.
>If we do not pay for software development, we have to do it by ourself
>;-)

This is what I try : doing it by myself, and letting source code open.
Those questions may have a strong impact on education.
The day when a teacher realizes that he will not be able to
teach without the use of a commercial software is certainly
a bad day. And this is what happen to me recently concerning the
first week of a distance learning course on Internet : there was 
a bolt, and student not having access to some commercial
software should directly go to the week 2 course material...
A bit annoying when you observe that the bolt comes from
a pretended non-lucrative international organization. Note that the 
bolt can be double : software and databases. Some crucial databases
are under monopolistic hands : a public research patrimony,
resold again and again.

Best,
Armel Le Bail
http://sdpd.univ-lemans.fr/course/