>If Mark did this, and on his own time, I have to assume
>that he saw the merit in it (perhaps for other open source apps?).

I think a significant part of the point was this:

During the time that there was a thread alive on this list
complaining about RDBMS on MPE, Mark grabbed an open source
version and ported it and got it functional. To paraphrase
(plagiarize :-) the athleticware commercial: don't complain
about it, "Just Do It".

And Gavin's point needs to be reiterated: Open Source porting
by the rest of us gives CSY the ability to concentrate its
limited resources to where we'll get the biggest bang for the
buck for MPE.

I'll step down from my soapbox, now.