I'm trying to get corporate IT to let me install Colemak at my new job, and I have to fill in the Vendor blank on the new software request. What is the official sponsoring organization?
I can't find anything on the website, and domain privacy is on, so I can't even look at who registered the domain.
The layout and the installers are in the public domain: https://colemak.com/License
Dvorak typist here. Please take my comments with a grain of salt.
Colemak and the MSKLC install on this site are public domain, with no strings attached. PortableKeyboardLayout (including my version PKL_eD) is GPL 3.0 licenced.
The Vendor field should probably say "Open source" or "Public domain" then? On a side note, I use the Vendor field on PKL layouts as an attribution field saying, e.g., "Shai Coleman, DreymaR". But that would only confuse your IT dept. so for you it wouldn't be a good idea.
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"Open source" or "public domain" isn't a vendor (you can "buy" open source software eg. with a support contract, from some specific vendor).
I'd just enter "colemak.com" there, that's where you got the download from, and is what they will want to verify.
colemak.com, maybe.
We have lots of open source/public domain software on the approved list, but in the other cases, there's always some responsible party. For example, the Apache web server is overseen by the Apache Software Foundation. One could say that the license is lacking. It specifies "the authors" without identifying who they are.
I personally think this is a whole lot of kerfuffle over nothing, but the lawyers are thinking about things like making sure no author is connected to a party in a current or past legal action that could create a conflict of interest or invalidate a contract or agreement.
For an IT department, support may be an issue. The Apache Software Foundation actually supports the Apache server, usually for a fee I think. It's their business model.
With Colemak and its ilk, all such bets are off. I, for instance, do support it quite a lot, but nobody pays me to do so and there are absolutely no guarantees as the disclaimer states. This may make some IT dept. nervous, don't know.
But that may not be an issue in this case.
*** Learn Colemak in 2–5 steps with Tarmak! ***
*** Check out my Big Bag of Keyboard Tricks for Win/Linux/TMK... ***
Did you manage to get Colemak approved by your IT department in the end, Madfordmac?
I think highly of Privacy Pursuits because it's very informative.
