> > Man, I remember when I first started using Linux, too! I was about as much of a > > dipshit about it as you are now. > > Oh yes, I see the light now. Commercial/proprietary use offers so much to an open > source project which aims to document arcade hardware throughout history.
Good job on demonstrating exactly how you've missed the point, and proving yourself to be a complete tool into the bargain.
MAME started out on DOS, was ported to *nix and MacOS, eventually moved to Windows as the default platform, then on into OS X, BeOS, QNX, and a host of other platforms.
Some of those platforms are the ones that you deride for being proprietary - but the reality is that MAME started out on a proprietary platform, and has since been ported to a number of both open and proprietary ones. In case that point was lost on you, allow me to summarise: the project a) would not have started in the first place if not for one very specific proprietary platform, and b) would not have expanded as it has if not for it and its descendants. You would not have what you have now if it weren't for MS-DOS and the tools on that platform that made creating MAME possible, and the world would be the poorer for it.
Hell, the default build platform for MAME? It's Windows. Everything else is effectively a port, though one that - through the use of appropriate tools - allows it to be built on others. Either way, you're a hypocrite for railing against 'proprietary' platforms when the software that you enjoy on your 'free' and 'open' one is directly derived from one that does not fit your preferences in that regard.
Platform wars and zealotry surrounding (insert platform of personal preference here) are as dull and idiotic in this day and age - and particularly when discussing a highly platform-portable piece of software such as MAME - as they were in the days of Commodore v. Atari.
Furthermore, if purity of platform is that much of an issue for you, I would suggest that you stop using MAME immediately and delete all source and binaries you may have received or created from it. After all, it would be a crime if MAME's proprietary origins were to taint the racial purity of your 'free' and 'open' platform of choice. Of course, doing so would assume that you truly have the courage of your convictions, which you obviously don't because you're clearly using a piece of software whose origin and licence clashes with those of your platform of choice in a great many regards.
> Except it doesn't, for a project like this what possible gain do you have from 200+ > legally commercial 'best mame EVAR' releases flooding the web?
Bad news: it's already happened, many times over. People who do not choose to respect one licence will just as easily choose to not respect another. In that regard, it's a moot point. For proof, see the umpteen x-in-1 MAME-derived ROM sets supported in, uh, MAME. > dipshit back at you!
I sincerely hope that you didn't strain yourself coming up with that riposte; it would be highly unfortunate if it was a stretch for you to come up with it.
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