Dear friends-

Well it's been a fairly long time since the last QFront update. But here, in the zip file you now have,
is an updated program.

Before I get too far, let me take a step back a minute and explain how we got here.

I was browsing through the PCBoard newsgroups on the Internet a while back and was quite surprised (and
tickled) to see there were still some people who either use QFront or who were thinking of using it. Much
to their surprise, I wrote an email to a couple of those people letting them know I was still around and
I would try to be of some help if possible. It seemed that the last major release of QFront, v1.19, didn't
run on newer Pentium machines. So I decided to fix the problem and compile a new version of QFront, v1.20.

This version contains various fixes to v1.19 other than the Pentium bug. But don't ask me what they are
because I can't seem to find my change log that I used for each new version :)

I want to take a minute and thank the many supporters of QFront from its very first release. Most of them
have closed their BBS's and moved on, but there are surprisingly many who still have their BBS's open.
Without these people supporting QFront through registrations, comments, and suggestions, the program never
would have made it past v1.00.

I also want to thank one particular person (you know who you are!) for helping to generate interest in
the program again. In addition to distributing the program, he has acted as a mini support site for the
program. This person also graciously mailed me an old copy of BBS Magazine from December 1994 which had
a 2 page article on QFront that I'm sure my kids would love to laugh at some day :)

It is in the spirit of this generosity that I have decided to release an official key generator for
QFront. You will see an executable with the name KEYGEN enclosed in this zip file. This program will
create a non-expiring QFRONT.KEY file. Simply run it, supply your name and your BBS name, and you should
be all set.

I am not in a position to offer official support for QFront. However, I have set up a Hotmail email
account that I will check periodically and help if I can. Please do not use this email address for
support unless absolutely necessary. The address is listed below. I will also periodically check the
PCBoard newsgroup on the Internet.

As you all know, I have spent many, many long hours (years) working on QFront. With the release of
this key generator, I am introducing a new registration concept. I'll call it "donationware". This is
NOT the same as freeware. Basically it works like this - if you find the program useful or if guilt is
tugging at your heart, I would appreciate a donation in any reasonable amount you see fit. Any donation
will help offset the time spent fixing v1.19 and will also offset the time spent on any questions sent
to me using the Hotmail address. My goal here is certainly not to get rich (if I wanted to, I could
reinstate the normal registration procedures, but instead am giving away the key generator). Instead,
the idea is to be at least somewhat compensated for quality work you see in QFront - the result of
hundreds and hundreds of hours of hard work. If you already registered QFront way back when, then please
accept my sincere "thanks", and consider your donation already made!

One more very important topic of discussion. If anyone out there is interested in purchasing the source
code and copyright to QFront and all the associated utilities, please email me at the address below. I
would be very interested in talking with you. It's not doing any good sitting on my hard drive and I
would love to see someone else take it over.

That's it for now. Once again, thank you very much for your support, and maybe we'll meet again in the
future!

Sincerely,
Rob Kittredge


Contact info:

Rob Kittredge
5631 E. De Blaay Ct., SE
Kentwood, MI 49512

qfront@hotmail.com