

Ask HN: FOSS that asks you not to use it on MS or Apple? - telemachos

Have you ever installed an openly licensed application on your computer, only to run it the first time and get a message like this?<p><pre><code>    You appear to be running Remind on an Apple product.  I'd rather that
    you didn't.  Remind execution will continue momentarily.
</code></pre>
remind works fine otherwise, but you get that extra output every time you run it. I find this genuinely odd, and I'm not sure what to make of it. remind[1] is licensed under GNU GPL v2. However, it ships with a text file[2] asking users not to use it on Microsoft or Apple products, and there is a similar message on remind's website[1]. The developer admits that he can't stop people from using it on a Mac (I think he means in practical terms), but nevertheless he builds in this semi-hobble message that prints every time I run remind.<p>I could hack it out (the message), but I wonder what people make of this? As I say, I've never run across it before.<p>[1] http://www.roaringpenguin.com/products/remind<p>[2] MICROSOFT-AND-APPLE (in the tarball)
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madhouse
I have used such software - though, it didn't affect me, since I wasn't on
neither macos nor windows. As long as it's a request, and not an additional
restriction on the GPL license, it's legal.

Since it's free software, one can hack it out.

If I'd ever write software that gets ported to a platform I massively dislike,
I'd add a nagging box aswell. Or perhaps would even refuse to merge the port,
since then I could be expected to support it, which I won't.

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davidw
It's free software, so you are certainly free to hack out his message, and
redistribute a version without it.

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timthorn
Going back perhaps 20 years, I seem to remember that GNU software was never
provided as binaries for Macintosh, as the OS was closed. At some point,
things mellowed, but I don't remember any specifc point in time when that
changed.

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praptak
Meh. It's ok for the programmer to ask this, it's ok for you to ignore that.

