RE: [cobalt-users] Support, Warranty and Hype

[Carrie Bartkowiak <ravencarrie@xxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 2 Jan 2002 22:01:57 -0500, Chris Demain mumbled something 
like:
>RMS has a few examples of how one can use non-free (FAIS)
>software alongside Free Software.

How Cobalt uses the free software in their proprietary GUI was 
explained to me as such by Rodolfo (ex-cobalt-user's-list member and 
good buddy O' mine):
The Cobalt software does not actually make changes to the existing 
free software file... it totally re-writes it. Everything is kept in 
that PostgreSQL database and when you need a change done (say, to the 
httpd.conf file), it pulls the info out of the database and lays down 
a completely new file with your updated data.

I know that's how the GUI works with the httpd.conf and many other 
files (/etc/named/records, for example), but I'm not sure if 
Rodolfo's explanation is right on the mark. It seems close enough for 
me, though, to hold water and pretty much explain how Cobalt makes 
proprietary out of Open Source.  :)

--
CarrieB