Hello Sean,

On Thursday May 19 2011 20:11, you wrote to me:

 SD> I'll leave the subject alone after this message.  I think I put my
 SD> feelings across pretty clearly on this subject. :)

I agree with most of your sentiments. OTOH, I can understand how people's
lives change and how people can lose interest in what once was their pet
projecy. It happened to me too several times in my life.

Also, I think it is not fair that if one has bought a piece of software,
one can expect support for all eternity. It isn't like that for hardware
either. If you buy a car, you get a one, two or five year guarantee,
depending on sales conditions and the factory guaranties that you can buy
spare parts for 10 years, but after that you are on you own. So why should
it be different for software?

It is Charles' right to stop developing Irex, it is his right to not
release the source.

Having said that... Fidonet is not a commercial environment. It was once a
green pasture for professional programmers, but it no longer is. There is
no more money to be made on Fidonet, so Charles has nothing to gain by
sitting on the source. Assuming he still has it. FidoNet OTOH would gain a
lot if the source were given to someone else willing and able to do
something usefull with it. Charles is still a member of FidoNet, an NC
even, so I think we can expect some loyalty from him as a fellow member.

Source lost? I find that a bit hard to believe for a professional
programmer. Propriety libraries? Oh c'mon surely a solution can be found if
someone is willing and able to take over the project? Anyway, why does
Charles not look us straight in the eye and tell us what the position is?

 SD> I still like Internet Rex, I still feel I got my money's worth,

I got my money worth, and I still use it. But I am not sure if I still like
it. I do not recommend it to friends any more unless they can make do with
the 3 node freeware version. It has a few mildly annoying bugs and
shortcomings. There has not been an update in almost a decade and the
author is unresponsive, so wcan safely treat is as abandonware.

I do not recommend paying for abandonware. Not the full price anyway.

Another issue is IPv6. I tried to get a response from Charles about that
too, but all I got was silence. Well, the message is clear: there is not
going to be IPv6 support for Irex. Period.

IPv6 is the Sword of Damocles hannging over everyone using the InterNet. My
position is that anything that does not support IPv6 is a dead end. We may
delay it and find workarounds, but in the end it will be unevitable, even
for FidoNet.

For well over two years I have taken the position that I will not buy new
network equipment that does not support IPv6 and that also goes for
software. In this stage of the IPv4 depletion game, IANA pool depleted,
APNIC pool depleted, RIPE pool expected to be depleted end of summer or
start of Autumn, software that does not support IPv6 or at least has the
firm promise of an upgrade before the end of the year, I label crippleware.

So Irex is now crippleware. ;-)


Cheers, Michiel

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