1. "Since moving the projects to SourceForge, we've kept up with submitted patches and bug reports. I feel that making the move was beneficial to the projects themselves and the people that use them," Tom Collins.
The inherently ideal circumstances of free and open source software is community development, testing, and support. Inter7 agrees that SourceForge is a recommended outlet to foster this ideal.
2. "I'm certainly not doing this to be malicious or to hurt Ken and Inter7," Tom Collins.
This is irrelevant and to mention so implies that your intentions may be potentially negative and hostile to community development.
3. "Ken Jones hasn't contributed to vpopmail and qmailadmin developmeny since March. We've had 12 qmailadmin releases and 7 vpopmail releases since then. Managing the projects on SourceForge keeps everything out in the open, and allows anyone to contribute," Tom Collins.
For seven years, Inter7 has been the original and primary development source for vpopmail, qmailadmin, vQadmin, eps, vQregister, DNSadmin, etc. The lack of "everything out in the open" is obvious when the intent of Tom Collins is to block the industry standard leader's contributions.
4. "Ken hasn't stated why he wants to be an owner of the project," Tom Collins.
Because he is. And without the support and encouragement of the entire community none of this software would be where it is today. Having set the standards and bench marks of performance, reliability, and backwards compatibility for vpopmail and related software, it is imperative to the Qmail community to have the assurance of Inter7 supported software development. Without public ownership of the vpopmail development on SourceForge, this is impossible and brings up many of the concerns that followed this email...
5. "Counterquestion: Why do you [Tom Collins] refuse to add him [Ken Jones]?" /Anders
Let us release our infantile dirt and get over our fragile geek egos. The ideologies of free and open source software will crumble under this nonsense. It is the acts of few like Tom Collins that remind big brother corporations like Microsoft how to insult the open source community. As a community, we must join together to support and continue development of free and open source software under the guidelines of mutually beneficial and reliable development standards.
6. Cracking industry standards and disregarding the methodologies that create superior software because of the inherent nature of open source development can have devastating results in the pursuance of its use. If we cannot create an environment of confidence, our politics will ruin future development.
In support of this point:
"While updates from Inter7 were sparse, I definitely felt comfortable running the current devel version." [snip] "I find it somewhat unprofessional to fork the project using the same names at sourceforge, and hijack the mailing lists in an effort to steer everyone towards your fork. ," Rick.
7. " (i) Perhaps it'd be valid for the vpopmail community to ask Ken why he hasn't been active in contributing, hasn't openly objected to any of the sucession of patches and release, and now suddenly is muddying the waters with this issue. (ii) When a projects developement seems to die out, a new person should be able to pickup the slack and keep things moving. (iii) If Ken has an issue with that, it'd probably behoove him to let us know why he waited, and where he'd see things going from now," Nick Harring.
i. Inter7 has been in rapid development of several free and open source development projects including the rapid demand for commercial support since the downturn in the economy has popularized Nix based operating systems. The community gains from this development and market creation by being able to be consultants themselves and by knowing that thousands of companies across the globe are hammering away at the very software we need to deem stable.
ii. It is probably important to Tom Collins that you not think any of this software has "died" out. Perhaps you have only recently started using vpopmail and that is why your opinion lacks in factual substance. Regardless, it would be a far cry to imply publicly, in particular this list, that vpopmail has died out without explicitly detailing your comments as a query. It is comments like this that will spread unfounded fear among newbies researching Qmail solutions.
iii. Inter7 has made constant headway in the development of free and open source email software for nearly seven years. [Ken Jones has been writing open source software for 19 years.] The obvious ramifications of hosting mailing lists, download portals, and IRC channels means that Inter7 and Ken Jones have never for a single moment stopped supporting community development.
8. "... I need to be able to trust the leader of the fork to act in the best interests of the user base, in terms of stability, new features, and an open developement model. Right now that would tend to be Tom, but Ken has only just begun the dialogue, so many he'll be able to settle all of this with what he has to say," Nick Harring.
Inter7 embraces the communal development of all free and open source software. We only ask that Tom join in these efforts.
9. "but if i had my druthers, i'd like to see tom and ken bury the hatchet and work cooperatively. that implies compromise from both towards a mutually agreeable middle ground," Paul Theodoropoulos.
Inter7 remains supportive of all efforts to enhance the development process. However, we cannot publicly back the development efforts of Tom Collins' work without administrative privileges on SourceForge. It is a time to call together everyone on this list to insist that Tom Collins add Ken Jones or another representative from Inter7. We are all a part of the community development process. Without cohesion, Tom's efforts may be in vain. Tom has great ideas. Tom is putting the efforts into managing the SourceForge development. And if these efforts can enhance and support our open source community, we will show our support.
Tom, give us something we can support. Give our community the name backing it needs to feel confident using the SourceForge new versions.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Catherine Kouzmanoff / CFO
.................................
Inter7 Internet Technologies, Inc
866.528.3530 toll free
847.492.0470 int'l
www.inter7.com