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<pre style="font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;"><big><big><span
style="font-weight: bold;">Dead Souls Versions<br><br></span></big>Written by Cratylus @ Dead Souls, November 2006<br><br>Dead Souls has a ridiculous number of versions. It's likely a symptom of disorganization<br>and carelessness, and it certainly wasn't out of a desire to confuse folks. This page<br>is intended to explain what each version's deal is.<br><br>If you're deciding, and aren't interested in which license does what, Dead Souls 2.1.1 is your best bet.<br><br><br></big></pre>
<table
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border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">Version<br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">Description<br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">License<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">
<pre style="font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;"><a
href="#1.1pre"><big>Dead Souls 1.1pre</big></a></pre>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">Original release<br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">public domain<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">
<pre style="font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;"><a
href="#1.1"><big>Dead Souls 1.1</big></a></pre>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">Easy-to-install version of the
original<br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">public domain</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">
<pre style="font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;"><a
href="#2.0r26"><big>Dead Souls 2.0r26</big></a></pre>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">Radically updated and debugged
version<br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">GPL<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">
<pre style="font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;"><a
href="#2.1.1"><big>Dead Souls 2.1.1</big></a></pre>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">Latest, stable version<br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">Proprietary<br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">
<pre style="font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;"><a
href="#II"><big>Dead Souls II</big></a></pre>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">Derived from 2.1.1 but without
some material<br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">public domain</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">
<pre style="font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;"><a
href="#2.1a"><big>Dead Souls 2.1aX</big></a></pre>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">"bleeding edge" Alpha versions:
under current development<br>
</td>
<td style="vertical-align: top;">Proprietary</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<pre style="font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;"><big><br></big><big><br></big><big><a
name="1.1pre"></a><span
style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Dead Souls 1.1pre</span><br><br> This is the original. In 1997 or 1998 (there are conflicting <br>histories), <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Reese">Descartes</a> decided to release his development lib to the public <br>domain. It was a fine basis for any mud, but it was released without a <br>driver, and for various reasons including <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear%2C_uncertainty_and_doubt">FUD</a> and difficulty setting it <br>up, people just didn't use it much.<br><br> This distribution is largely a historical artifact at this point. <br>It can certainly serve as a basis for someone else's new lib distribution <br>project, or it can serve as a vital reference for those interested in the <br>minutiae of the development of the DS family. However it is not helpful <br>for "newbie" mud admins/owners. The learning curve required to<br>get this fine, but limited, lib is very steep.<br><br>You can download it here: <a
href="http://lpmuds.net/files/deadsouls/ds1.1pre.tar.gz">http://lpmuds.net/files/deadsouls/ds1.1pre.tar.gz</a><br><br><a
name="1.1"></a><span
style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Dead Souls 1.1</span><br><br> In terms of lib code, this is almost identical to <br>Dead Souls 1.1pre. The main difference is that it includes the driver, <br>and has been fixed up to boot and work reasonably well upon installation. <br>It's also configured to connect to the yatmim intermud router.<br><br> This version of Dead Souls (but not the driver) is also public <br>domain. Like Dead Souls 1.1pre it is mostly useful as a curiosity, <br>museum piece, or research specimen.<br><br>You can download it here: <a
href="http://lpmuds.net/files/deadsouls/ds1.1.tar.gz">http://lpmuds.net/files/deadsouls/ds1.1.tar.gz</a><br><br><br><a
name="2.0r26"></a><span
style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Dead Souls 2.0r26</span><br><br> The difference between Dead Souls 1.1 and 2.0r26 is dramatic. <br>Numerous samples exist, including a sample town. There is a <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/example.html">"code-free"<br>online creation system</a>. Many, many bugs are fixed, and useful new systems <br>implemented, such as a menu based administration tool.<br><br> 2.0r26 also contains the documentation that Descartes had pulled <br>from 1.1pre. With his permission, I added his old Nightmare docs, which <br>are something like 99.99% applicable to Dead Souls. In addition to those <br>docs, 2.0r26 contains DS-specific documentation.<br><br> Finally, 2.0r26 contains not only driver source for UNIX <br>installs, it also contains a pre-compiled driver executable for Windows, <br>so that in a single distribution, you have everything you need to run <br>Dead Souls on either UNIX or Microsoft Windows.<br><br> 2.0r26 is not public domain software. Unlike the 1.x versions, <br>2.0r26 is distributed under the <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gpl">GPL</a>. This is actually not very meaningful <br>for software that is designed to run from interpreted plaintext files. <br>It was a futile attempt to comply with the licensing of other software <br>that it used to be bundled with. It's no longer bundled with GPL <br>stuff, so again, there's not much point in it being GPL.<br><br> The fact that 2.0r26 is still distributed under GPL is largely <br>due to 1) laziness on my part 2) the requirement of SourceForge to <br>have only <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software">OSS</a> software hosted on their site 3) I think that's it. <br>Laziness and convenience.<br><br></big><big>You can download it here: <a
href="http://lpmuds.net/files/deadsouls/dead_souls_2.0r26b.zip">http://lpmuds.net/files/deadsouls/dead_souls_2.0r26b.zip</a></big><br><big><br><br><a
name="2.1.1"></a><span
style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Dead Souls 2.1.1</span><br><br> This is a bugfix release. 2.0r26 was mostly set in terms of <br>desired functionality. However, it still suffered from security and <br>usability limitations. 2.1.1 represents a "finished, stable product". <br>While in theory you could easily run a successful mud with 2.0r26, if <br>you run into a bug or a problem, the answer in almost every case is <br>"upgrade to 2.1.1", so I generally encourage people to avoid 2.0r26 <br>and download 2.1.1 instead.<br><br> The licensing for 2.1.1 is not GPL. It's a sort of <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/code/ds2.1.1/LICENSE">muddled <br>proprietary license</a> which basically says "you can use this as a mud, <br>modify it, whatever, have fun, but I retain copyright". It's vague <br>because I simply am sick of thinking about licensing. It's not GPL <br>because I'm even sicker of people telling me what I can or can't do <br>with my GPL'ed software.<br><br> My "I can't be bothered to think about licensing" attitude <br>tends to freak out some people for whom licensing is Really Really <br>Important. So you may see flames back and forth between me and such <br>people on various mud discussion forums. I think that's pretty <br>normal. If you hear anyone referring to Dead Souls and licensing<br>issues, it's almost certainly a reference to the controversy and <br>friction caused by my adversarial relationship with folks I affectionately <br>refer to as the License Taliban.<br></big><big><br></big><big>You can download it here: <a
href="http://lpmuds.net/files/deadsouls/ds2.1.1.zip">http://lpmuds.net/files/deadsouls/ds2.1.1.zip</a></big><br><big><br><br><a
name="II"></a><span
style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Dead Souls II</span><br><br> This is a version of Dead Souls derived from 2.1.1, but which <br>has had documentation removed. It also has had various files that I did <br>not write removed. The result is a lib which is about 98 to 99% code-identical <br>to 2.1.1, but it actually public domain.<br><br> The reasons for releasing a year's worth of work into the public<br>domain are explained in the <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/ds-II-faq.html">Dead Souls II FAQ</a>.<br><br></big><big>You can download it here: <a
href="http://lpmuds.net/files/deadsouls/dsII.zip">http://lpmuds.net/files/deadsouls/dsII.zip</a><br><br></big><big><br></big><big><a
name="2.1a"></a><span
style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Dead Souls 2.1aX</span><br><br> "Alpha versions" are rough, pre-release packages that are like the official<br>release, except they are more cutting edge. That makes them both fun to try <br>out (which is why I make them available) but also not really stable to use<br>for your production mud, because often with new features come new bugs.<br><br>One of the big reasons I'm not doing frequent public releases, with <br>patches, is that a great many of the things I'm doing represent compatibility <br>breakers with 2.1.1. If I did frequent "official" releases and upgrades, <br>people would be running into compat problems continually.<br><br>Instead, I'm holding off until I'm more confident that the big compat busters <br>are taken care of, so that subsequent releases and upgrades are less painful. <br>The idea is to have big compat pain just the once.<br><br>So, that's the idea of making sneak-peek alphas available, but not officially <br>supported releases.<br><br>Having said that, the alpha releases are as runtime stable and more <br>feature-rich than any lpmud lib you'll find out there, so when I say they <br>are "unstable", it is purely relative to what I expect DS official releases <br>to be. So it's not insane to start a mud with one. It just may be<br>inconvenient for you down the road.<br><br>For information on the big differences between recent alphas and the 2.1.1 <br>release, read this: <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/RELEASE_NOTES">http://dead-souls.net/RELEASE_NOTES</a><br><br>Alphas can be found here: <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/code/alpha/">http://dead-souls.net/code/alpha/</a><br></big><big><br></big></pre>
<big style="font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;">The end.<br>
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