I didn't intend to come across as snotty. Looking back over my email archives (which run from June '99), we've had about 60 requests for Mac software,

Let's see, though... 300 units... 60 requests for Mac software, that's a firm 20% of the market. Is Empeg really so rich that they can afford to completely ignore that market segment?

What nobody seems to have considered is that Consumer 1.0 is due out in a couple of weeks, and it is intended to be a stable release. It would seem to make a lot more sense to petition for a source release after that time.

What seems to make a lot more sense ... to those of us on THIS side of the equation ... is that Empeg should have released it early on, and the die-hard Mac/Linux users would have already PRESENTED you with code that worked, which you could then include on the Consumer 1.0 CD, which you could distribute to new customers, and then you'd have had cross-platform support, "eight o'clock, day one".

You can argue that "we keep changing the code", which is fine, but its also easy to say "Give me a diff on the code", so that the outside developers can see the changes and incorporate them immediately.

It's just that (IMHO) it was short-sighted to not release the source code -- in whatever condition it was in -- early on, because people WOULD have figured it out so that they could build a Mac version.

One thing to keep in mind, Rob, is that you have customers -- not beta-testers as companies like Microsoft tend to treat them, but customers -- who may have spent upwards of $4000 already with your company, and possibly much more on car audio equipment to USE your hardware. At the price-point for the Empeg unit, the customer doesn't deserve to "have to understand Empeg,Ltd's problems" about deadlines on other products, etc. Now, I know you'll point out that the web site claims no real support for Mac's, and that Mac support is "on the back burner" according to the site. The point is simply that the Mac product could have happened completely WITHOUT Empeg man-hours, simply by releasing the Emplode code, in whatever condition it currently exists/existed.

This, to me, isn't about "Open Source" at all, its simply about functionality. You can make the license on the source code as resrictive as you want. I think, by and large, empeg Mac users would send you back the completed work, simply because they WANT support for the Mac.

I don't doubt you're going to support the Mac "eventually", but as a Mac user who is used to "eventually.... eventually ... some day... oh, well we changed our mind.", it does ring hollow in the ear. I know Empeg is mildly different than most companies in that regard, but when the effort required is completely zero , I can't see "Why not?"...

D