FreeLists / openbeos / [openbeos] Re: [ANN] Developer migration

["Daniel Reinhold" <danielr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Zenja

I'm glad that you've found a new interest. By all means, go investigate 
Elate and have fun with it. But as far as I'm concerned, you're still a 
part of the OpenBeOS team -- even if only an honorary one. Perhaps in 
six months or a year you will feel like doing some BeOS coding again, 
and, if that's the case, we'll still be here, ready to accept any ideas 
and contributions that you have.

I want to make a general statement about OpenBeOS development that I 
think must be said.

The OpenBeOS project relies on the goodwill and contributions of many 
people. However, we each have many things on our plate. This is 
understood. I hope each and every contributing member understands that 
we don't expect them to make OpenBeOS their full-time obsession. 
Joining OpenBeOS is not like being drafted into the army.  You are 
always perfectly free to work on any and all projects that are of 
interest to you. Are you interested in AtheOS? Go for it! Read about 
it, work on it, do whatever you feel like doing. Want to do some Linux 
programming? Great, go get some books on it and start cracking away.

We don't want anyone to feel as tho they are being held in a 
straightjacket by offering to contribute to OpenBeOS. We need the 
expertise of many people, and the more programming experience the 
collective has, the more we can offer in the final product. Zenja, your 
work in Elate may give you many good ideas which you might be able to 
forward to us (or you could jump in and develop your new ideas 
yourself).

To all those programmers on the list who are thinking about joining the 
OpenBeOS project, I hope this influences you to dive in. If we have 50 
developers or 100 developers (or more) who contribute just a little bit 
of time whenever they can, the project will move along very quickly. 
This will be easier down the road when things have been structured and 
documented a bit more -- right now, we are in the early phases so there 
is a lot of time spent just familiarizing ourselves with APIs, etc. But 
once we have a more developed code base in place, it will be easier for 
others to scan what's been written and jump in with additions/
corrections.

So please, please, please... don't anyone get the notion that joining/
contributing to OpenBeOS is somehow going to be a heavy commitment that 
will drag you down.  Feel free to contribute as much or as little as 
you think you are able. If you think the BeOS is a good OS and worthy 
of being continued and extended into the future, then join us. We don't 
want to put a weight on your shoulders, but rather wings on your feet.

>
>It is with both joy and sadness that I have to announce that a new
>opportunity has arised which will force me to abandon BeOS and migrate 
to
>Elate/DE development.  This decision would have been made even if BeOS 
were
>the #1 OS with a brilliant future planned.  I wish everyone the best 
of luck
>with your current projects, you've all been a superb and inspirational
>group.  During the course of my life, I have never encountered such an
>intelligent and vibrant community as the BeDev community, and if 
anyone pops
>down to Melbourne, Australia, it would be my pleasure to buy them 
drinks.
>
>I will continue web-hosting my BeOS projects for the next 6 months, 
after
>which their future will be uncertain.  
>
>
>PS. If anyone wishes to discuss Elate privately with me, send me a 
personal
>email at solaja@xxxxxxxxxxx