Ibrahim, > I got surprized with the recent changes to get Pymol after Delano > announced the new release 1.0.
You can find DeLano Scientific LLC's reasoning at http://pymol.org/funding.html with a more general discussion at http://delanoscientific.com/about.html However, the short answer is that: Everything of value takes resources to sustain, and it just isn't reasonable to expect something from nothing (or at least, not perpetually!). In fact, PyMOL users have long been asked to sponsor the project, and the resulting contributions are what have made continued PyMOL development possible. It was our top-tier sponsors who eventually convinced us to limit access to executables to only those users who do actually sponsor the project. Their reasoning, which I now entirely agree with, is that they were unfairly subsidizing PyMOL for everyone else. The resulting compromise is that PyMOL remains open-source code*, but access to our official executables and documentation serves as the incentive and reward for sponsorship. That way users have specific reasons for sponsoring the project while at the same time knowing that others will not be "freeloading" off their contributions, except perhaps as intended: through participation in the open-source project at the source-code level. Existing PyMOL users who want to continue relying upon the software without sponsoring it have several reasonable options: (1) use pre-1.0 builds still available on the internet, (2) compile source code and self-support, or (3) convince someone else to do the work involved in option (2) on their behalf. Thanks to everyone who has or is sponsoring PyMOL. And yes, by the way, a 1.0-release has at last been issued :). http://www.pymol.org Cheers, Warren DeLano Scientific LLC *The PyMOL open-source code is for Linux-compatible environments, including Mac OS X under Fink / X11. Compilation under proprietary operating systems is not prohibited, but simply beyond the scope of the open-source project. Current source code is accessible via Subversion. ________________________________ From: CCP4 bulletin board on behalf of Ibrahim M. Moustafa Sent: Thu 7/5/2007 8:23 AM To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK Subject: [ccp4bb] Pymol - windows Hi all, It happened that I had to reinstall my PC laptop; now I need to get Pymol for WinXP. I got surprized with the recent changes to get Pymol after Delano announced the new release 1.0. I can get the source code but not the executable as free for academic (if I'm not wrong). Actually, I don't understand why they apply these changes for the former release 0.99! which I used to have. Anyway, I haven't build any windows application from source before; I wonder if someone is willing to share his windows executable or can give a guide to how to build Pymol from the pymol-src. thanks in advance, Ibrahim ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ibrahim M. Moustafa, Ph.D. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Dept. 201 Althouse Lab., University Park Pennsylvania State University, PA16802 Tel. (814)863-8703 Fax. (814)865-7927 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
