Blender Is GPL

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Posted by ryuzaki0 on Sunday October 13, 2002 @07:27AM from the boom-boom-boom dept.

BartV writes with a low-key snippet from the new blender.org: ""Today, Sunday oct 13, 2002, we've launched the Blender sources as GNU GPL to the Internet. Blender has become Free Software forever!" This should be a case study for other companies with software no longer profitable as payware; read some of our previous postings about Blender to follow the story from idea to release.

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UI. by garcia · 2002-10-13 07:34 · Score: 5, Interesting

I was reading through some of the previous articles b/c as we all know, the server is /.'ed.

I found a lot of complaints about the UI of the program (see one here)

Any of the hardcore Blender users planning on actually doing some development on the UI (and some features which other programs have, ie default lighting?)

I am really interested in doing some of my own editing soon and I would love to see an easy to use program that isn't referred to as " the vi of 3D modelling "

Just some thoughts until we can see the actual article.
1. Re:UI. by tjwhaynes · 2002-10-13 07:40 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  I found a lot of complaints about the UI of the program (see one here [slashdot.org])
  
  But you will also find a ton of people who like the UI just fine. Once you get used to the UI, it is fast, powerful and practical. Blender does have a steep learning curve to begin with, but once you have that over with, the package shows its power.
  
  You might think that the 'vi of 3D modelling' is an insulting term. Others might view it as high praise.
  
  That said, I still prefer Emacs :-)
  
  Cheers,
  
  Toby Haynes
  
  --
  Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
of precedent setting by MadFarmAnimalz · 2002-10-13 08:37 · Score: 5, Interesting

It occurs to me, what with all the debate going on concerning the validity of open source as a business model, that we are missing the bigger lesson from the blender story.

While I know that those 100 k Euros probably did not really cover all the assets of NaN, all the same, it showed it is possible.

What would people say to programming teams picking up desired projects, and then 'holding them ransom' and waiting for some form of corporate sponsorship, perhaps?

Or just doing it the way blender did it, and accepting private donations? That way, the projects that people really deem worthy would be the ones that made it into the open source community. Survival of the most valuable?

Good idea? Bad idea? Comments?

--
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
Bitch'n moan about the UI... by Picass0 · 2002-10-13 08:53 · Score: 5, Interesting

People who find the UI difficult to use remind me of people who can't read sheet music bitching about how hard it is to play the violin. Perhaps the reason you find blender difficult is you lack a foundation in 3d to base your knowledge upon.

The other camp that complains about the UI is the Lightwave and Max crowd who are comparing this relatively small program to a full featured suite.

Blender is a good tool. It is about to get better. I dig the fact that it will be part of Linux distros from now on.

I believe in Blender so much I gave my fifty and became a member. And yes, I'm very happy right now.