I’m listening to Novell Open Audio and immediately at the start of the show I’m thinking “Jorge must have nagged these guys for this show”. And I keep listening and it has some great information, not just about the product, but also about the development process. iFolder design has been “temporarily” taken in house. I find this interesting because the software is open source and under the GPL, yes the process of creating the software is not transparent. The project looks dead. This podcast is much in response to the fact that the project looks dead. Yet we are assured by Novell that work is being done.
I find this very interesting because it is a very different open source model than most people think of when they think open source like Linux, Apache, CastleProject. These projects are developed by the public, in the public. But iFolder is developed by Novell, and during this time period, under closed doors.
I make no judgment about if this is good or bad. I don’t care. I’m not an open source or transparency insane person. I just point it out because I find it interesting.
About 10min into the podcast, Ted comes right out and says “If you are an Ubuntu fanboy… my friend Jorge Castro” Hahahaha. My initial suspicions were correct. Thanks for nagging the right people Jorge.
Jay:
Jorge gets no credit! It was a blog post by David Harrison was the primary catalyst. Jorge may have bugged me about it a bit at Ohio Linux Fest, but I have acute, selected deafness regarding Mr. O’Castro.
–Ted
Few clarifications !!! As most of the contributions to iFolder project was coming from developers sponsored by Novell, there was a need to make few changes to the team. Unfortunately this killed few months of time and that was enough for the negative rumors to spread. But the fact is iFolder development is being completely done in open source model and managed and maintained in open source model. The list of new features being worked on is posted on the project website, (www.ifolder.com) and new feature requests are welcome to be there. Regular builds will be back in place soon. New design changes are published for review on the iFolder website. We are hoping to get some review comments from the guys out there. Also, iFolder-Dev list is seeing some positive momentum recently .Infact, iFolder project currently needs lot of development and testing support from many angles… including Mac Client extenstions for the new features.
So, I would put it as “iFolder is not dead but is more fortified with a new direction and strong backing from Novell”.
Few clarifications !!! There was a need internally to make few changes to the team. Unfortunately this killed few months of time and that was enough for the negative rumors to spread. But the fact is iFolder development is being completely done in open source model and managed and maintained in open source model. The list of new features being worked on is posted on the project website, (www.ifolder.com) and new feature requests are welcome to be there. Regular builds will be back in place soon. New design changes are published for review on the iFolder website. We are hoping to get some review comments from the guys out there. Also, iFolder-Dev list is seeing some positive momentum recently .Infact, iFolder project currently needs lot of development and testing support from many angles… including Mac Client extenstions for the new features.
So, I would put it as “iFolder is not dead but is more fortified with a new direction and strong backing from Novellâ€.