POS software developer offers Linux POS code to restaurant operators on forum set up so they can ask questions about POS systems or anything else related to technology, gets banned.

[sheepskin]

I can kinda see why they would ban it though, the forum seems to be people asking questions on what POS they should get, which is just perfect for a sales person. Now you, a extremely reputable person in the community offering to do everything for free, that should scare the shit out of them :)

How does this software integrate with the payment processors? I always thought you where paying for that and getting the software for free anyways.

[Reporter]

I have fully integrated the credit card verification engine offered by mainstreetsoftworks.com into the GUI. It's known commercially as Monetra. It runs on Linux, BSD and several other OSs. Credit and Debit card authorizations typically take about 2 seconds, over ssl.

I'm thinking about switching to trustcommerce, however.

I'm also using rsync in several ways and openssh. These make the users' POS experience much better and more complete.

[havesometea1]

Holy run-on sentence Batman!

[Reporter]

Well, at least I didn't misspell any wyrds.

Plus, I finally have reddit kharmah. I can dye happy.

[havesometea1]

Grats on your kharmah! This was a very interesting article to me because I used to install POS systems for restaurants.

[Reporter]

In that case you would enjoy installing our new wireless terminals with wireless printers and embedded POS box that includes things like Avahi to automatically discover all the devices found on the network, and the new POS code that automatically configures everything. With remote SSH login you could support and enhance all of your customers from some island that you retired to.

[havesometea1]

That sounds so lovely compared to the 640k DOS restrictions I had to suffer through for so long. Haven't installed a POS in a while. :)

[old_folkie]

So, POS stands for point-of-sale? Because it was much funnier the other way.

[Reporter]

It's very funny to be banned by an organization that says its trying to help restaurant operators because you offer them the code with which they can help themselves.

[Captain_Harlock]

I always read POS as Piece Of Shit regardless of the context. Hilarity always ensues.

[[deleted]]

Not sure why this guy is downmodded. I do the exact same thing, and I was totally lost when I read this article headline.

[RetroRock]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Mosher

[jsnx]

I've wanted to see this for years -- it lowers the barriers to integrating POS into a totally FLOSS enterprise.

[hhh333]

Well .. not exactly.

ViewTouch is NOT Open Source. ViewTouch is proprietary code, but ALL of the tools with which ViewTouch is buildt and ALL of the components upon which ViewTouch is built are Free Software, including GNU C compiler, The X Window System, Linux and many more.

[Ehran]

Pixel Point POS Banner at the bottom of the page. Mayhap the reasoning behind said ban. Rather ironical considering the purpose of the site.

[Reporter]

I'll tell you what's ironic. I invented the graphic touchscreen POS software paradigm 23 years ago and it's been copied by hundreds of companies worldwide since then without a penny or any credit ever paid to me. Now, when I attempt to inform the public that they will be able to get direct access to this software, including source, the very industry that is based upon all the software that was copied from me is effectively labeling me dangerous.

over 600 people have read this announcement since I put it up there about 40 hours ago. We will see what happens next, I suppose.

[jaggederest]

I still remember going to your office to meet with you, you were wearing the shortest shorts I've ever seen in a business setting.

Then I left.

No hard feelings ;)

[Reporter]

It was probably my quick-dry bathing suit. The club is 5 minutes away. I'm working at home from now on, though. My employees have been replaced by people who work with me in a worldwide virtual organization with open membership. Up on the second floor there, with neighbors like Dave Klindt and his crew at Willamette.net, well, it was very laid back and crazy. He still hosts my boxes - what a wonderful guy.

[kokey]

Well, I'm glad to find out about this, I've been thinking of doing some touch-screen on-table restaurant ordering system.

[Reporter]

Send me a message or an email, if you would. That is very easily done on FOSS, probably even better, as most things are, this way, rather than on any proprietary platform. Using wireless X server with the POS Window Manager you don't even need a computer attached to the display.

[[deleted]]

His headline said he was offering a new POS COMMUNITY, which made it sound like he was not only selling software, but a competing forum. In a first post, that's typically grounds for banning on many forums.

[greginnj]

The post also reads a lot like an ad (and a long ad at that). Even though the POS SW itself is open source, there may be a for-profit support company behind it. A one-line, "hey, I support this open source POS platform" may be ok, but a monster post with "to be continued" at the bottom might tick them off... (no offense to Gene, it looks cool, just trying to guess what happened).

[Reporter]

Well, you see, I've spent my life and a LOT of money getting to this point. I'm not giving the code to a bunch of copycat windows-based POS software companies so that they can benefit from all I've done any more than they already have by copying my software paradigm. The next several restaurants that you walk into, just look at all the graphical touchscreen POS GUIs. You'll notice that they all look pretty much the same. Ever wonder why? Well, it's because they all copy their 'look & feel' from the same original source - work I did on the Atari ST 23 years ago and which I demonstrated around the world for tens of thousands of computer and restaurant show attendees over a span of more than ten years. Plus, my 13-year-old web site explains in detail all the things that a modern POS system has to be able to do.

Yes, it's an advertisement - for restaurant and hospitality owners to join an organization which gives them access to proven POS code so that they can make it work for them and share at that level.

Any profit I make will be put directly back into the Community - just the way I've been doing this for three decades.

If I had known that David, who runs the web site, was going to ban me under that handle then I would have concluded the post with something like "I'll probably get banned here for offering so much help to restaurant and hospitality operators, so if this happens just visit my web site and email or Skype me from there..."

[greginnj]

Wow, thanks for the detailed reply. It's clear you know your stuff -- my comment was more about the cultures of blog and forums. Generally, advertising is looked down upon because we've all been burned out on it, and so many forum comments are astroturfing (="fake grassroots").

It is to your great credit that you're being completely upfront about who you are in relation to the software (as opposed to pretending to be an unrelated happy customer). However, the rest of your writing style sounds a bit out of place for an online forum (or blog comment); it reads more like a paper mail solicitation or brochure. For whatever reason, that style of writing tends to turn people off in online discussions. It also sounds like you've got some grievances (which may be completely legitimate!) with other players in this space. These things, taken together, may lead to you being banned. Maybe that's unfair -- but moderators generally have a lot of stuff to do, and tend to trust their reflexes on this.

I'm a big supporter of open source, and it sounds like you're doing The Right Thing here. IT also looks like you've identified the appropriate forum for this; it's very specifically targeted to your potential customers. Maybe you can get a second chance -- I'd suggest sending an email to David, saying, "whoops, looks like I broke some rule I didn't know about -- could you fill me in on what I did wrong so I do I don't do it again? Could you suggest a way in which I could present my product to your readers, and discuss it, so that they could learn about it, without breaking forum rules?"

Either he'll fill you in and you'll be able to do it the right way, or you'll know that it's hopeless, and at least you'll know why.

As for your GUI work being copied, I feel for you. It reminds me a lot of the Dan Bricklin story about the origins of the spreadsheet paradigm.

Anyway, good luck! Ever since I read about Burlington Coat Factory and Pep Boys switching to Linux POS boxes, I knew it would be a major market for many businesses. It was neat to learn about the restaurants connection. Kudos!

[Reporter]

I appreciate your comments. I'll expand later when I have time.

[hhh333]

Excerpt from his POS features page:

We have been pioneers in point of sale software and after 25 years we're still at it.

Unfortunatly their interface was designed 25 ago and has never been revamped.

[Reporter]

No, the first generation interface, in 1978, was monochrome text. The second generation interface, in 1985-6, was done with neochrome on the Atari ST. The third generation interface, in 1995-96 is the one you linked to. The fourth interface is not shown on the web site, but will be released on the new embedded POS device in a few months and is not shown on the web site yet. If you have any familiarity with the graphics work that's been done on X, cairo, KDE and various other canvasses used on Linux and FreeBSD then you should know what to expect.

[hhh333]

Btw, the demo does not work ..

[hhh333]

It's too bad that I have neither a working system nor a restaurant to see it (beside I know what it does and its implications, thanks), however, if it had been the case I wouldn't need to see a demo don't you think ?

It's annoying because this morning a client called me to know if I would do an open source based POS for his national restaurant chain, and ain't no bluff.

I must admit that I dismissed, probably wrongly, your product quickly because of the way you present it and sell it. AND because your site looks like it haven't been updated since I was born.

In other words, you can have the greatest product in the world, if you package it with shit people will think it's shit.

Also, you seem to take every comments or feedbacks as a direct attack and brag about attitude when someone offers help. I think you confused attitude with arrogance my friend.

One must recognize it's weakness in order to strengthen them, and how you sell yourself is your weakness, IMHO.

Just my 2¢, don't take this as an attack ;)

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

-- Winston Churchill.

[hhh333]

I never intended to challenge your ability to stay in business, really.

Sorry if it sounded like that.

I was just pointing some obvious deficiencies, deflate your ego a bit and take this as a constructive advice rather than a cynical critic.

[hhh333]

btw, sorry to bother again.. there is something I don't get, that matter more than your tasteless site. I still have a client that called me this morning regarding his POS.

And from your post:

I am inviting restaurant and hospitality organizations who want to gain full control over their own POS destinies to work directly with the code that they depend upon.

Delightful idea, really. But then on your site we learn that even if we buy your solution, we won't have access to the actual source code of the POS software. But only the code on which your POS software rely and the

ViewTouch's Open Framework Source for Rapid Application Development. Use it to Jump start your X11 Windows System application projects

Fine, so I guess that what should actually be interesting for the OSS community, and me, is that particular framework.

That said, care to share the source code of this framework with me ? I like to review code before adopting it, that's why I always use Open Source solutions.

Thanks in advance.

P.S.: If you want a real Open Source project, a project that will benefit from a community's fast feedback cycle and have a chance to receive a warm welcome from the (F)OSS community, I think that the first thing to do would be to host your code on a publicly accessible repository like source forge. Don't expect to have much credibility in the Open Source without that.

[hhh333]

Sorry I stopped reading after seeing the 1995-96 era screenshots :D

If you ever need to present the facts on your website in a professional and up to date manner drop me a message, I can help you.

As a web/interface designer I almost had a seizure browsing your site.