Torsdag 19 april 2007 12:10 skrev Kern Sibbald: > Hello, > > Open Source is a fantastic success story, and shows every sign of becoming > a gigantic snow ball over the next few years. Usage of Bacula is > increasing significantly, which is very pleasing. However, the development > side of Bacula, with one or two exceptions, I consider a total failure. Very strong wording here > > Bacula has received quite a number of submissions other than my > contributions over the years. However, in general, these submissions have > been made without documentation (leaving it to me to document) and the > developer after a short time has for various reasons moved on to other > things (change of job, change of life status, other interests, ...). All > this is normal, but what I find very disappointing is that with only a > couple of exceptions that come to mind there are no permanent Bacula > developers other than myself. Just to set things into perspective - I think this is not so uncommon in opensource projects. I can give you one specific example, which is the development of the postfix mailserver. Vietse Venema mentioned last year in a talk, that though several people contributed code to the project, the quality and level of integration with existing code is usually so, that he finds it easier to take the idea and implement it from scratch. So most of the code have been witten by one man. He also mentioned the leverage for the project was the modularisation on one hand and the plugin API on the other, so that other people can interface their applications with his.
That is just one example, but I have noticed other projects in similar situations. There is of course the other types of bigger projects that attracts a larger following. I think it is not so strange. People who like to work with databases are often developer types - so there are several large opensource db-projects. People who like to work with backup systems are more of the admin types - and as you indicate - a backup system is a demanding beast to handle codewise - even for a developer type of person, not to mention the very low level of some parts of it. Seen this way from the outside I think total failure could just as well equal highly successful under the limited and constrained conditions that you describe and are working under. I think that it is very good that you move with what you feel is right, and better even if something can be organized for the things you would like to leave behind like project lists, web-site and documentation etc. > 3. As of today, the gnome-console (renamed bgnome-console) and wx-console > (renamed bwx-console) are deprecated and no longer supported by me. If > someone else wants to pick up support of them, I'll be very happy to accept > patches. Are you still going foreward with the gui? > 5. I will be devoting more of my time to a project that I previously > mentioned that will provide training and support for Bacula engineers and > for 3rd party Bacula Service organizations. The support provided will not > be direct customer support but certification and level 3 support for > professional service companies with the goal of promoting Bacula usage and > code submissions. > > The concept here is that I am convinced that commercial organizations want > to use Bacula (many use Solaris, so it is critical for them) but are > hindered by the lack of qualified professional service. By insuring > professional services for Bacula, I believe that we can compensate for the > lack of commuity participation in the Bacula development process. This is > because commerical/governmental/educational organizations will make > significant contributions to the project when they have professional > support. I believe you are right on target here - if there are such organizations then it will certainly add to the completeness and maturity of the oss solutions that can be offered. I'm sure the support services for the backup solution are a must for many. > > Best regards, > > Kern > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express > Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take > control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. > http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ > _______________________________________________ > Bacula-users mailing list > Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users -- Best Regards Steen ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ _______________________________________________ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
