ACM Technews Snippet [1]

[Steve Jenkin]

Summary: http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1227f.html#item12
URL:    
http://digitalmass.boston.com/news/globe_story.html?uri=/dailyglobe2/354/business/Sharing_the_riches-.shtml

"Sharing the Riches"
       Boston Globe (12/20/02) P. D1; Gaither, Chris 

       Lotus founder Mitch Kapor is funding the nonprofit Open Source
       Applications Foundation (OSAF) that focuses on bringing open-source
       software to PC users in order to make information exchange more
       intuitive. OSAF's centerpiece is Chandler, a program that will be
       distributed for free download and will run on Windows, Apple, and
       Linux computers. Kapor wants the software to be an alternative to
       Microsoft Outlook groupware, and is pouring $5 million out of his own
       pocket into the Chandler effort. "I think it's wrong to characterize
       things that he's doing in competitive terms," explains software
       developer and VisiCalc creator Dan Bricklin. "Mitch and a lot of these
       developers are not competitive people, as much as they are creative
       people who want to build something different that people will use."
       Kapor's funding to the OSAF far exceeds that of other free software
       nonprofits, such as the Free Software Foundation. His $5 million is
       expected to last for about two years, after which the OSAF will
       hopefully be able to support itself through contributions and licensing
       fees to companies who use Chandler commercially. Rather than
       concentrating on stealing market share away from Microsoft, Kapor
       will focus on how well Chandler will attract users, lead to the creation
       of successful companies, and spur Microsoft to improve Outlook. The
       software is not expected to be released for at least another year.
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Steve Jenkin, Unix Sys Admin
PO Box 48, Kippax, ACT 2615
0412 786 915