Saturday 27 March 2021

My first and only postcardware

Back in the 90s I wrote a couple of DOS programs that turned a PC, even an ancient model like the XT, into a diskless printer spooler, using the LPR or JetDirect protocols over Ethernet.  It was my attempt to repurpose superannuated PCs for useful work. The PC could even be network booted, thus not requiring even a floppy drive.

Anyway, I released the program as open source postcardware, which is a variant of shareware, where the user is encouraged to send a postcard to the author if they like the program. I got a few postcards, mostly from Europe, in the years that followed. Here are the 4 I found in my old letters. I think I have another from New Caledonia but I haven't found it yet.

Since then I have released open source software under more conventional but less interesting licenses.

A Bonn scene

Same author, also Bonn

Heidelberg in winter

Lisbon, but I think the author was Dutch