I understand that you are planning to drop Omega from the official teTeX distribution, and I am writing to urge you to reconsider this decision. It is frustrating that Yannis Haralambous and John Plaice are so uncommunicative, but I hope that this is no reason to discriminate against the software. Many people lose interest in their programs, no longer have time, or even die, but their software continues to live after them. The current Omega works for me---I do a lot of Arabic and Hebrew typesetting---and even if Haralambous and Plaice never do another thing for or to Omega, it will remain a core tool for me.
At the moment, there are a small number of extended TeX's---eTeX, NTSTeX, the ancient MLTeX, and pdfTeX, besides Omega---but none of them ``push the envelope'' as far as Omega does. Many of the additional capabilities these other TeX's provide can be simulated by (admittedly) fancy macro writing, but not so for Omega. It would be iimpossible to simulate the added functionality of Omega in any other way. For that reason, Omega provides a worthy example and inspiration for other developers. Of course, even if Omega were not part of teTeX, it is still readily available. Yet being ``dropped'' somehow confers a badge of shame or even of illegitimacy that Omega does not deserve. Moreover, an orphan Omega that is not integrated into teTeX will be much harder for a na\"{\i}ve user---even an experienced user---to install. For these reasons, I do hope you will reconsider your decision. ---Alan Hoenig (long-time admirer/user of teTeX)