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Linux Router Project Dead
An anonymous reader submits: "The Linux Router Project is no more. This single-floppy distro was a great tool for building a number of simple super-low-cost network devices. The maintainer has a lot of bitter words about its demise, and it is sad to see it go."
I think it's the smell of burning bridges...
"Dead" is probably a little overstated, but open source burnout is a real problem for small teams. A product that becomes popular makes great demands on one's time, and when times are hard financially, this quickly turns into a losing situation.
Maybe I'll start a counselling centre for desperate OSS programmers...
Q. I feel inadequate, I have thousands of users asking for features, but I can't deliver _and_ keep my family fed. -- Frantic, IL
Dear Frantic,
Even the best software companies take their time adding features. Don't believe everything you hear about "internet time". Good products of any kind take years to build. Relax. Take your time.
Q. I'm working all my free time on project X, but no-one seems to care. Sure, my users love it, but in job interviews, it's worth nothing. -- Pissed Off, CA
Dear Off (or should I call you Pissed?),
Don't confuse art and business, and for that matter, don't mix them either. OSS is art, you do it because it makes you feel great. Only if you are a truly great artist will people appreciate your work, and you usually have to die first. Get a day job on other merits - perhaps a nice tie - and do your art when the inspiration takes you.
Q. how do I make money from my OSS project? -- Destidude, NY
Dear Destidude,
Money? Did you start it for money? Nah. You started it because you thought "hey, I can do that?" Let me remind you of a basic rules of business: if you want to make money, find a group who have money to spend and make something they want. Who are you selling to? Do they have money? Right. Now stop complaining and change your CV to include "Open Source Migration Consultant".
Sig for sale or rent. One previous user. Inquire within.
When look to the tooth fairy for help, don't be surpised when you get smashed in the mouth.
The Linux Router Project is no more.
It's not pinin'! It's passed on! This project is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed it to the perch it'd be pushing up the daisies! Its metabolic processes are now 'istory! It's off the twig! It's kicked the bucket, It's shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!!
THIS IS AN EX-PROJECT!!
"I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full frontal lobotomy"
Rather than post what you wrote, all I can say is "Bravo!"
This guy'll be sitting on a park bench 10 years from now ranting and raving about his operating system that moved away from all that Unix shit as he feeds the pigeons and drinks his Thunderbird...
June the 24th, 2003, was much like any other summer's day in Peterborough, and David Cinege, a frustrated, unemployed computer programmer, was on his usual way to look for a windfall of money is his mailbox when --- Nothing happened! (dum dum da dum) Scarcely able to believe his eyes, David Cinege looked down. But one glance confirmed his suspicions. Behind a bush, on the side of the road, there was *no* severed arm. No dismembered trunk of a man in his late fifties. No head in a bag. Nothing. Not a sausage. For David Cinege, this was *not* to be the start of any trail of events which would not, in no time at all, involve him in neither a tangled knot of suspicion, nor any web of lies, which would, had he been not involved, surely have led him to no other place, than the central criminal court of the Old Bailey. (muttering voices, Judge's gavel banging.)
But it was not to be (ominous music returns). David Cinege returned to his basement in Dulls-ells Street in Peterborough, at 9:05 a.m., exactly the same time as every other morning!
(door opens)
"Morning, David"
"Morning, Mum"
David's Mum, a middle age but still attractive schoolteacher, couldn't help noticing the complete absence of tiny but tell-tale blood stains on her son's clothing. Nor did she notice anything strange in Mr. Cinege's behaviour that whole morning. Nor the next morning. Nor at any time before or since the entire period since David began his odd morning journeys to the mailbox.
"Have we any more frosted pop-tarts, Mum?"
"Yes, they're over there, David."
(faintly) "Oh..."
But for the lack of any untold circumstances for his mum to notice, and the total non-involvement of Mr. Cinege in anything illegal, the forweight of the law would insure that David "piss off" Cinege would have ended up like all who challenge the fundamental laws of our society. In an iron coffin with spikes on the inside.
For Christ's sake, what do those programmers eat?? With a few thousand Dollars, I can eat for a year or longer...
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
In other news, SCO inc. sued the creators and users of Freesco for $1Billion for vague IP infringement which they refused to disclose. Then Cisco suggested the IP in question was probably theirs and sued the Freesco project as well. Then SCO sued Cisco, resulting in an infinite loop which caused all lawsuits involving companies with the letter sco in their name and unix IP to vanish in a puff of logic, and we all lived happily ever after. The End. :)
Giving away code - good code - has many other benefits:
  - Gain respect from your peers
  - Social aspects - make useful contacts, meet like-minded people
  - Improve your skills
  - Take advantage of the debugging/design power of peer review
  - Forestall possible attempts by others to patent ideas you've discovered independently
  - People will send you free computers
  - If you're good enough, expect to be invited to join organizations, speak at events, etc - it's fun.
All this for only 3 easy payments of 19.95. Call now! Don't delay! In fact, if you call in the next 10 minutes, you'll recieve a complimentary AOL disk at no extra charge*. It's our gift to you. Call now!
*Some exceptions may apply, batteries not included, void where prohibited and in Alaska Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
So he did he finally get around to legally changing his name to Linux Torvalds! I knew if would happen eventually. Now if only he could change that "Torvalds" to something catchier and sexier... perhaps "de Beaumarche".
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.