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   From: Chris Game    
   Newsgroups: alt.comp.freeware,alt.os.linux.ubuntu   
   Subject: Re: My ubuntu experience   
   Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2007 10:44:12 +0000   
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   On Tue, 23 Jan 2007 10:25:42 +0100, Laszlo Lebrun wrote:   
      
   >> Trying to install such a basic program as Pine - which must be ages old   
   >> - means one has to compile from source to get a decent working binary   
   >> with all the features.   
      
   > Due the licence that comes with PINE, distribution of binaries are not   
   > allowed, hence there are no binary packages for debian.   
      
   Not quite right, there is a debian package on the UW website (this is   
   fairly recent); the main licensing problem was that UW didn't like to see   
   modified versions of Pine offered because of support/quality issues, the   
   next version (called 'alpine' for the moment) will be on an open source   
   license. Open source/free software obsessives didn't like the current   
   license conditions so refused to include Pine in distributions.   
      
   My point was that to get even such a simple program working well on Linux,   
   you have to apply various patches then compile from source. This is not   
   the way to support customers in the 21st C.!   
      
   Linux apologists will point out that there are many email programs that   
   can be used instead. Unfortunately most are unfinished and of poor   
   quality, not what you want from an important resource. The whole Linux   
   project suffers from dissipation of effort into too many channels. If it   
   were better focused Linux could have captured the desktop OS market by   
   now.   
      
   --    
   Chris Game   
      
   Bug?  That's not a bug, that's a feature.  -T. John Wendel   
   --- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5   
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