Evolution — the open-source mail and calendar program from the GNOME desktop environment — is getting ported to Windows. Finnish hacker Tor Lillqvist, who brought the GIMP image editor to Windows, is behind the effort.
Finally, a decent alternative to Outlook!
Dr. Dave, author of the outstanding Spam Karma plugin for WordPress, has decided to create his own distribution of the open-source blog tool. Citing frustration with the handling of the development process by project leaders, he is independently distributing an altered version of WordPress with the next version of Spam Karma pre-installed.
Since WordPress is released under the open-source General Public License, Dr. Dave is completely within his rights to do this. Splitting off a separate version, or “fork,” of WordPress in this way has some serious drawbacks, however. The forked version won’t be officially supported in the WordPress forums, for one. Taking on the burden of support and maintenance for the fork may also consume so much of Dr. Dave’s time that he can’t further develop Spam Karma. On top of that, there’s the prospect of political turmoil and backlash within the WordPress user and developer communities.
That said, the prospect of a fork doesn’t bother me as much as the approach that was taken. Dr. Dave’s post announcing his intentions is snide — one might even say mean-spirited — in tone. Frankly, it all strikes me as a bit juvenile: “If you aren’t going to manage your open source project the way I like, then I’ll just take my marbles and go home!”
For my further thoughts on the fork and on the way it was handled, read my comment on Dr. Dave’s announcement.
Posted 4/19/2004 @ 1:43 AM
Dr. Dave has posted a lengthy, and quite gracious and restrained, response to the concerns I expressed in my comment on his announcement. While I’m still a little uneasy about the direction he’s chosen to go, I do understand it better.
It’s important to clarify that based on his reply to me this is not a fork of WordPress. My impression is that the core WordPress files will remain relatively untouched, with the differences being mostly in the area of minor bug fixes and better Spam Karma integration. No word yet on whether SK2 will remain available for those who opt to use the official releases. My guess is that it will be, but installation may be more of a headache. See Dr. Dave’s comment, below, for further clarification on this issue.
