Just keep in mind it’s not actually an open license, so beware of later potential contamination from it. I’m avoiding looking at the code all together. Of course, I’m also on Mac and using Textmate, so that’s easy.

claims, I meant to add the word “claims” after contamination

Something that’s not clear, is this code actually compile’able to a working application..? From the open company page:

> To discourage piracy, a tiny but essential core (also containing the licensing code), will be kept private (at least until users reach a certain rating)

@dbr, see the last paragraph in the blog post announcing the release. In short, yes, the Linux version will be compilable – “it just needs a Linux version of the ecore library which will be released shortly” – and is free (as in beer):

http://e-texteditor.com/blog/2009/releasing-the-source

@timocratic, The license seems to be a modified BSD license (3 clause). However I’m not sure what is meant by the last clause “Any redistribution, in whole or in part, must retain full licensing functionality, without any attempt to change, obscure or in other ways circumvent its intent.” But from the sound of it, it doesn’t seem to qualify as a OSI or FSF certified license, if they opt to be certified. If they are still referring to the same thing as the 1st clause it should be Ok.

Being said that I’m genuinely happy of E going open. IF there’s a licensing problem they need to rethink it a bit. However E provides great (hopefully) Open Source alternative to the commercial TextMate.

I use Vim. So I most probably will not use E, (TextMate for sure because it’s not FOSS) but it’s good to see a good FOSS alternative.

Disclaimer: I’m not a FOSS fanatic, but I prefer to use Open Source tools personally.

@charlesr : I guess the “ecore library” will only be available in binary. If so I think we can’t fork it or make a mac port.

The final clause essentially prohibits forking.

Also it is NOT FOSS. Its is pay-for, commercial software making available code with a restrictive license under the guise of a permissive license.

You can contribute code as volunteers, but everyone still has to pay to use it and contributors get nothing. Worse, those contributions are covered by their restrictive license agreement and are effectively locked-in. Its probably not even a good idea to download the code.

To alter my previous statement: There are “plans” to compensate contributors and contributors are “supposed” to retain full rights of their code. The idea behind it is interesting, though possibly flawed. It is still not FOSS, and it has a poorly written, probably unenforceable, license.

@xybre - Why do you find the licence poorly written?

You are correct that it is not FOSS in the strict sense, but it is open source in the sense you can see the source, change the source, fork the source and even redistribute it. The ONLY restriction - if you want to call it a restriction - on Linux is that a kernel of licensing code must be included IF you intend to redistribute it. On Linux, that licencing code essentially does nothing - the software is free as in beer. Other that that, you can do what you like. It's really barely any different from the requirement with GPL to include the licence with any redistribution.

On Windows, the software remains commercial software (the previously mentioned licensing kernel enforces this), albiet with open source.

Your scare quotes ("plans" and "supposed") seem to imply you think something shady is going on here. I can assure you it is not. Alexander Stigsen, the original developer behind E, is a man of great integrity. He has taken his closed software - his livelihood - and opened it up in an very permissive way with a simple, easy-to-read licence. It is an attempt at something new and, as with many new, innovative ideas (that seem almost too good to be true), they are often percived as suspicious. But really, there is nothing shady going on. If you would like some clarity on certain points, or have further questions, please stop by the forum or contact Alexander directly. He's a pretty friendly guy.

Contributors don't have to pay for it because they can change the values passed to the editor that confirm the registration. It was actually really easy to do, just replace the method call on the object with true in a few places and it works. Now I just need to figure out how to build it in release mode.