Hi Jude, Good stuff in here. Thanks for bringing it up. Comments inline...
On 12/1/15, 12:35 AM, "jude" <flexcapaci...@gmail.com> wrote: >BTW I do plan to help on Flex JS when the time is right. That is when it's >more stable, when it has a few more design and development features to it. Can you provide more detail on what features you are waiting for? Can you help work on those features? > >Do not read this next part unless you want to hear me ranting and >complaining. But because it's unclear to some people I'm mentioning this >project I'm going to clarify some things. I donated the radiate code more >than a year ago to apache. > >So again I was surprised an open source project was not fully embraced, >appreciated or supported. The limiting factor for Apache Flex is time. The committers, like yourself, only have limited time. Even for me, who is paid to work on this project, I have so many things to work on, Radiate is not in the top 10 on my list. That doesn't mean the donation isn't appreciated. But the fact is, I think a lot of us expected you to keep working on it in the Apache repos. IOW, I didn't see it as a gift, but something you were bringing to the party and not just leave it. > ... I could go on but my whole point is that open >source has a bunch of lies surrounding it. Look at OpenSSL. It powered >half >the webs ecommerce and do you know how much money was donated ><http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/tech-giants-chasten >ed-by-heartbleed-finally-agree-to-fund-openssl/> >to it? It was something like $2000 per year and was maintained by one >developer. WTF guys? > >That project generated billions of dollars and no one supported it. My >point is, after that first point, is that I'm trying to commercial radiate >so that I can keep working on it. I'm giving some parts back to the OS >community as I can but some part of me feels like I have to explain this. >Like I'm not part of the OS crowd because I'm trying to make it survive. And that's fine too. Lots of commercial products are selling value-add to open source technology. That value-add can just be support, it doesn't have to be new features. > >I'm happy for this FlexJS and NextGenActionScript but seriously, we suck >donkey balls at raising money and supporting our work. Angular, typscript, >all those other ones are getting resources, popularity in the biased >asshole media. The company that shall not be named was horrible and still >is horrible at marketing. I made a list and they are the number one worst >company for marketing. So my point is we have to change or get better at >this. If the media attacks it rip these assholes apart. IE defend it with >a >vengeance. There are corporate-driven open source models and then there is Apache. Apache takes great pains to make it clear that no one corporation has undue influence over the future of a project. And all of us have witnessed what happens when a corporation that does have influence changes its mind. So to some degree, potential customers should feel safer placing a bet on an Apache project. However, it appears that in the Apache model, until you get someone who can build a business around the project, money is scarce. I want to make sure everybody reading this understands that Adobe is highly unlikely to be the company that will build a business around Apache Flex. Adobe has totally focused on creatives and has pretty much decided that it isn't good at supporting developers. Adobe has probably spent over a million dollars on getting Flex up and running at Apache and is not expecting a dime of it back. That seems quite generous to me. It isn't going to kick in more to help with marketing. We've got to find other ways to get the word out. To me, that way is by word-of-mouth, testimonials from successful customers. And so I spend my time listening to what folks have to say on this list and trying to get folks to be successful. I'm not always the right person to do certain tasks like Maven and AMF and have to keep asking "can you live without it, at least for now?" because I see plenty of other things that need to be done so we can start a whole new showcase around FlexJS apps and get folks talking about how much faster and higher quality it was to use FlexJS. And then, the gamble for those of you who aren't paid by your employer to work on Flex is: do I continue to contribute for free or find some other way to get funded so I can continue to contribute so I can better the chances that FlexJS will be successful and I will be known as one of the pioneers of this technology and be able to ask a higher hourly rate and/or get more contracts? I think the big money in FlexJS will be in contracting/consulting and not in selling software. We are doing what I call "The Big Wait". Many of these emails talk about waiting for one more feature, one less bug, one customer to offer up a testimonial, one company to spend more money before we contribute more. In the Adobe Flex days, you had to wait for Adobe to decide what and when to release. In the Apache model, it requires a different mindset: the community has to make it all happen. In the FlexJS 0.5.0 release, we tried to make it easier for folks to contribute, but more can certainly be done and we will make progress on making it even easier. But if you can find renewed motivation from these discussions to contribute please do. Every little bit counts. Think of those community house-building efforts. Even hammering one nail makes a difference if enough of you can. Thanks, -Alex
