[cobalt-users] Re: [cobalt-users] !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![MASTER-CD]!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Keith Davis <cache@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Steve Werby wrote:

> Assuming that it's technically possible to achieve your goal, I'm quite sure
> it violates the Cobalt license.  

Cobalt of course has proprietary right to their software, no less than
RedHat has to theirs, in spite of the GNU delusions of world domination,
but they DO appear to have exercised that right by releasing it to
public domain GNU. Click the blue "C" logo on your Server Management GUI
and open the "Credits and Acknowledgements". 

QUOTE:
Portions of the software on the Cobalt server are
freely redistributable. A few of them require special
permission to redistribute, and Cobalt Networks, Inc. has
obtained these permissions. The majority of the software
components are distributable under the BSD Copyright
and the GNU Public License. The complete source code is
available at ftp://ftp.cobalt.com/. 
ENDQUOTE:

Although "All rights reserved" does appear on each and every Perl script
that runs the GUI, nowhere in the box or manual does Cobalt reserve
copyright explicitly forbidding, or granting, derivative works. 

That said, why open up the source to development? 

Personally I've considering it because I have a client hosting 600+
domains who wants to dramatically expand. He has more than 15 new
features he wants on the siteAdmin GUI. (There's no way in hell he's
going to get under the hood to do all this tinkering for 10k sites!)
Since the Cobalt GUI is written in Perl we would like to just add the
new features right into to the Cobalt siteAdmin GUI. 

As you can see, we're highly motivated to "upgrade" the GUI. However, we
wont simply because we don't want our features blown away on a future
upgrade. The way I see it, if you screw with the GUI, you're potentially
on your own when an attack worse than lion worm comes along. And those
attacks are going to get far more sophisticated. Instead we're going to
build a separate siteManager GUI that can be used with PlesK or Ensim or
even Cobalt. Our siteManager will fulfill a proprietary niche and will
not be marketed.

What I'm suggesting to those who are contemplating re-writing portions
of the GUI to correct it's deficiencies, instead contemplate writing a
standalone companion manager. It's probably a lot easier to code from
scratch than to stumble around inside some of Cobalt's scripts, some of
them are down-right ugly inside. And you still get to rely on Cobalt
upgrades for their part. And if you're thinking commercial, every Cobalt
that gets sold is a potential client for your GUI upgrade, which beats
trying to compete with Sun's name and marketing. There's a fortune out
there looking for a *complete* Linux server GUI. And Cobalt falls short
of fulfilling that market exactly to the extent that solutions offered
on this list require going "under the hood". But think relationship
instead of competition. 

Desire for a GUI that makes server management as easy as an average
windows app is exactly what's driving Cobalt's sales, and Microsoft's
server sales too. MS servers have gained web server market share inspite
of being insecure, bloated, and expensive, strictly because they have a
GUI that does the damned job. "In httpd.conf find the following
line...and...." is the sweetest of music to Bill Gates's ears. With the
best O/S and the best webserver we are nevertheless going to lose this
war if we continue to refuse to fight where the battle is actually being
fought.

The next million website owners are not going to be here because they
want to manage a server from telnet, they really do have more important
things to do, that's why they are here. The Linux/Apache server can be
state-of-the-market as well as state-of-the-art. It just takes more work
than Cobalt put into it. Computers that work like people think are more
powerful than people who think like computers work. So Do It!

And we expect beta results by June, ya hear!!! :)

keith