[climm] [climm-list] AOL claims to open OSCAR protocol, but again doesn't

[Karsten Behrmann]

> >--[Alexander Dahl]--<post at lespocky.de>
> 
> > I'm going to read this now. Stay tuned. ;-)
> 
> I'm definately not, as there is no way any open source client
> can adhere to there license requirements.

Well, I'm sure you could, with sufficient rule-bending ;-)
After all, you can only release client adhering to the rules as it ships,
no way to keep people from modifying it if they want to...
Two out of five of the following:

Advertising
  - It would be quite easy to have a start-climm.sh script that fetches
    and displays an ad on startup. Of course, as the open-source world
    is diverse, the ad-display program would have to be configurable.
    Not our problem if /bin/true becomes a popular web browser ;-)
Buddy Info
  - This is fairly easy, if you blur the concept of "click" into
    "reasonably few keystrokes" on keyboard-only apps.
Expressions and Buddy Icons
  - Hardish, but could also be accomplished through continuous executing
    of user-defined image fetching-and-display tools
AIM Start Page
  - Easy enough in a start-climm.sh script...
    BROWSER=firefox --remote-open-in-tab
    $BROWSER http://blah ;-)
AIM Toolbar
  - Probably not.

Though I haven't looked at the rest of their licensing, that may be
somewhat more anal.

So Far,
  Karsten "BearPerson" Behrmann