Palo Alto, CA Ð Faced with competition from more full-featured utility programs, RightBrain Software last month announced that it would begin shipping the source code of its four $95 utility programs along with the shrinkwrapped software. The move is unusual, because it gives users a license to modify the programs for their own needs.
RightBrain's LaunchPad and Portfolio Workspace extenders were to have shipped with bundled source code during April. The company said that LockScreen and Rulers would be released with source code in the near future.
Glenn Reid, president of RightBrain, said that bundling source code fits with NeXT's marketing strategy to position NeXTSTEP as an easy-to-use development environment. "This permits customers to add the features that they need when there is no incentive for us to add them for all users," he said.
Under the license, users can modify the programs for their own use, but they may not reuse the source code in competitive commercial products. Reid said that RightBrain will continue development on new versions of its utilities.
"This is a very cool and innovative move for RightBrain. It's a great strategy that works well for both the shrink-wrap customer and the corporate developer," said NeXT CEO Steve Jobs.
Reid said that sales of the utilities have been strong, but the company hopes that adding source code to the package will increase sales. He said that Right Brain would not ship source code with its forthcoming PasteUp page-layout program.