Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site sdcsvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!jww From: jww@sdcsvax.UUCP (Joel West) Newsgroups: net.emacs Subject: Commercial vs. Public Domain Message-ID: <969@sdcsvax.UUCP> Date: Wed, 10-Jul-85 18:08:07 EDT Article-I.D.: sdcsvax.969 Posted: Wed Jul 10 18:08:07 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jul-85 10:28:50 EDT Organization: CACI, Inc - Federal, La Jolla Lines: 30 The July 1985 Digital Review (an advertising throwaway mag aimed at the DEC-compatible market) contains an article about Emacs, "Have it Your Way" by Jane Penner Silks (p.93). Given the recent raging controversy of distribution rights, nonetheless I think it goes a bit far: ....[EMACS was] developed by Richard M. Stallman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the '70s as an extension to the more primitive TECO text editor, the fast, flexible EMACS soon became public-domain software and spawned dozens of look-alikes, subsets and commercial versions. Today, although it HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, [emphasis mine], EMACS is as powerful and customizable as ever. There are currently two commercial versions of EMACS available to VAX users, one from CCA Uniworks, Inc. of Wellesley, Massachusetts, and one from Unipress Software, Inc., of Edison, New Jersey, which is based on the updated UNIX version of EMACS written in 1983 by James Gosling at Carnegie-Mellon University. The two programs offer the full range of EMACS features and now run on VAXes under VMS as well as UNIX. The remainder reviews the two commercial VMS versions, notes costs (Unipress: $2,500 VMS binary, $7,000 VMS source, $995 UNIX source + 25% annually for maintenance; CCA: $1,900 or $5,000 VMS, $850 or $950 UNIX + $800/year maintenance). It does recommend EMACS wholeheartedly, however. If you'd like to send any comments directly, the address is Reader Input, DR, 160 State Street, Sixth Floor, Boston, MA 02109.