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Ettiquette For Restarting Abandoned Open Source Projects?

Posted by Cliff on from the avoiding-toe-steppage dept.

nicsterrr asks: "What does one do when a promising open source project stops dead with no word from the developer(s)? I have been considering contributing to a certain sorceforge hosted project over the past few months, but unfortunately all development seems to have stopped and the main developer has vanished (from the internet at least). I understand that the GPL states that GPL source code can be used in derived work if the licence is unchanged, but I am hesitant just to 'hijack' the work done by (it seems) just one person, without first having an understanding of what his thoughts are first. In addition, there are almost no supporting comments in the code, and no separate developer documentation. What would you do in this situation if you were interested in furthering the undocumented, unfinished, and currently abandoned work (which at first glance seems to have potential) of someone else, and your attempts to contact them have been in vain?"

4 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. Eric Raymond by fava · · Score: 1, Informative

    Didnt Eric Raymond write an essay about that at one time.

    I seem to recall that he formulated a set of guidelines from
    when he took over the fetchmail project, but I cant seem to
    find it on line.

    1. Re:Eric Raymond by photon317 · · Score: 5, Informative
      Yes, he wrote a huge paper on related issues, all of which is quite accurate and good information. Link below brought to you by Karma Whores International:

      http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/homesteading/h omesteading

      --
      11*43+456^2
  2. Interesting Trend... by eWarz · · Score: 1, Informative

    Alot of open source projects have died of late. It would be nice if new developers would pick up where the old ones left off. There are also alot of projects out there that are in need of help. For example ReactOS, an open source, modular windows NT clone has a bright future, it just needs more developers. It is currently farther along then any other 'windows clone' project around. I'm not affiliated with the above said project. There are also alot of closed source projects that are dead, but those are another story ---- MetaWorx Software (Under Reconstruction)

  3. Check unmaintained-free-software.org by tawaste · · Score: 5, Informative

    Have you checked it's not in http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org/