Recently, PalmSource announced the winner of its PoweredUp awards-needless to say, AutoSync didnt win. Tamoggemon has little problems accepting this fact. However, CoreCodec, the developer issued the following open letter to PalmSource(quoted text)-I inserted some comments:
“An Open Letter to PalmSource”
First… I would like to thank the community who had tried to vote for TCPMP during the PalmSource Poweredup Awards, we at CoreCodec and the Developers of The Core Pocket Media Player value and thank you for your continued support.
It is a question if this voting did not invalidate your submission. Motivating users to click on AdSense ads invalidates your earnings. Anyways, PalmInfoCenter says that the winners were chosen by judges-so, user votings apperently were worthless.
We would like to point out some ‘non-bitter’ obvious things (or in this case not obvious) to PalmSource and why we think their PoweredUp Awards and the process for judging IS WAY BEHIND THE TIMES and note that their purchase by of ACCESS Co., Ltd, has not changed their way of thinking one bit.
PALM POWEREDUP AWARDS FACTS
– No Open Source Software is allowed
Giving money to open-source programs can be damaging! I can darkly remember a german magazine’s report about the xbox linux project when a cash prize was announced. The coordinator feared fights when the cash is due for distribution!
– PalmSource was to announce winners Dec 14 but pushed it to Dec 19th, why?
Delays do happen. Should not, but Murphy’s laws apply here too!
– The contest is built with one purpose in mind, push closed source products
I am 100% behind the fact that a business like PalmSource wants to push products to potentially generate revenue for their third party software vendors. The Poweredup Awards are a great way to do so, but the reality is that there is substantially better open source software then the current winners from this years awards and that these Open Source Projects could use the same amount of advertising and revenue that their closed source competitors have.
I beleive that the decicion for PocketTunes was influenced by Palm. I personally never understood WHY they didn’t include TCPMP instead-but having a free program beat yours could look painful!
I am simply stating that “PalmSource might want to get with the times and truely adopt (or even recognize) Open Source in their process flow and let the Palm Community speak the truth on what is actually good software!”
There is a happy medium to be had… but to SNUB Open Source in general and to have been aquired by a company that openly embraces it and the freedom it brings… says nothing for this contest.. and the time to change has come, not today, but yesterday.
Please keep in mind that this is not a PalmSource-only thing. There are lots of companies involved, and each one of them has its own interest.
Overall, I totally agree that TCPMP needs to be honoured somehow. However, I am not sure if those awards are the right way. Two or three handhelds can not be divided among developers ‘fairly’-and what is fair? Giving a price to a company is considerably easier, there is no risk of quarrel if the stuff becomes company property…
What do you think?
Related posts:
Content, RSS
Twitter
If Palm did recognize TCMP it would be a huge liability since TCMP infringes on many patents without licensing them.
I don’t know all the details or the goals (public or private) for the PoweredUp Awards, but I think pretty clearly it’s a corporate business agenda, not simply a “best program” recognition.
It would be extremely nice to see something, maybe adjacent and secondary to Powered Up main awards, that recognizes other software that is significant in the PalmOS community. Certainly, even if open source, they are a big part of the PalmOS success and popularity (uncertain as the future may be). And programs like TCPMP have even been mentioned by Ed Colligan as important to the community. I agree, and would really like to see them recognized for their contribution. I bet there are even significant sales of Palm devices that are influenced by the availability of software like TCPMP.
Surely there’s a way to do that recognition without sacrificing too much on the business side with respect to other good commercial software that is being promoted for business purposes.
And with respect to monetary prize issues… if that’s a problem, I still think a non-monetary prize is certainly worthwhile and deserved.
i don’t agree with software patents – program is logic (or, it should be), you can get rights to invent anything just for yourself, because there is always at least 1 person who find it too as you did. also, open source is the way how to prevent wasting money for really crap code.
TCPMP is a great job, just i am not sure if being “award winning product” is the right way. small projects are sometimes much more apreciated.
The Magic Lantern was another promising media player for PalmOS (also oss), but somehow stopped it’s evolution inearly stage (doing hardresets on T|C). but TCPMP is example that it can work.
You know, TCPMP didn’t really need the PalmSource recognition, but it’s so clearly ahead of the competition it would’ve been nice to see them acknowledge it. PocketPC mag had no problem seeing the incredible power of it, and even Spb’s survey showed BetaPlayer blowing away the competition. As for money, TCPMP is GPL now but is transitioning to delineate between the pure GPL offering and the commercial product with licensed codecs. It is still in beta, after all. But the point is well-taken, PalmSource shouldn’t ignore open source development – the PalmOS future, frankly, depends on it.
Hi,
but non-monetary recogniton(say, handheld) is even more difficult to divide than cash IMHO!
The only thing that would work well is a honorable mention or sth like that!
Best regards
Tam Hanna
Stupid, I’m sure they would know how to divide it. There is always one main head and I guess for the PalmOS port, it’s Picard. Is just the stupid PalmSource with a very narrow focus on USA and commercial software. Then products as PTunes get the power up price, and this the second time. PTunes is a fine software, no doubt, but it isn’t new, it didn’t pushed the platform to a new limit. So why does it get a price from the OS maker? Anyway, bashing the open letter isn’t a gentle style too.
Regards
Henk
PS: IMHO, only Edge has really deserved the price.
Hi Henk,
first of all-sorry if this post annoyed you! I also said it at PalmInfoCenter’s-I fully understand the developers rage!
However, I am not sure if this would work out well with the $$$. Many people contributed bug fixes, code, algorithms, conecpts(Flowcharts),…-and I am sure that some of them will be pissed off. This pissedoffness would slowly spread over the project… . I can still remember that article in the c’t saying that the XBOX Linux founder was rather “unhappy” about the bounty beeing offered back then!
Best regards
Tam Hanna