Reviving the Firewall Design Program?

rcha101 asks: "I'm not sure if many of you are aware but Robert L. Ziegler use to host (IMHO) the best online firewall configuration tool (formerly available here here, check out the link now for his sad synopsis) until recently when he decided to pull the plug on it. I have since been trying to contact him in an effort to get this tool back online and develop the IPFW2 side of it (correct some of the rules, add extra features to it etc) but have had no luck. Does anyone know how to contact him? Has anyone else been in a similar situation? What web tools do you use that could suddenly disappear overnight? Robert are you out there?"

Comments

Astounding.

[mewyn]

I don't know much about the project, but his attitude about his project and users is absolutley deplorable.

First off, he shouldn't think of his users as moochers. First off, he was offering it for free. You give something away, you shouldn't ever expect anything back. Second, I'm sure there were many people, like the poster of this article, who are grateful users, but just haven't voiced their opinion. Personally, I'd rather have one message in my inbox about 5 reasons why my software sucks than 100 messages about reasons why it rocks.

Things like feature requests are very common for an admin of a project. And many people out there are rude, or just not conciderate, and their requests may seem like demands to some people. As far as technical support of the software, setup a listserv and make it community support. I would expect any message I send to any project admin about technical support to be brushed off.

One more thing, if he made this an open source project and is now hording the source, that is just wrong. The open source community is just that, you give to them and they provide peer review. True it doesn't always end up that way, but maybe that's because you didn't manage to get the right users.

Anyway, I think he needs to pick up a copy of The Cathedrial and the Bazaar. That may shed a little light onto his problem.

Mewyn Dy'ner

Re:Astounding.

[leonbrooks]

You give something away, you shouldn't ever expect anything back.

Yes, otherwise it's an offer of trade, not a gift.

Personally, I'd rather have one message in my inbox about 5 reasons why my software sucks than 100 messages about reasons why it rocks.

Not so sure about this one. I find error reports more useful but if few to none are also saying thanks then I'm probably missing the mark somewhere.

One more thing, if he made this an open source project and is now hording the source, that is just wrong.

True, except that he's under no obligation to continue providing the source if he ceases providing the binaries, and being the original (and apparently sole) author, he has every right to change the licence arrangements. What he has no right to do is to reach back out and demand that people stop using his source if he ever open-sourced it.

Also, you have no right to demand that he be happy or generous, only reasonable and not rude. And "reasonable" most definitely does not mean "agreeable".

The long and the short of this is that if you find a copy of his code with a FOSS licence, by all means go ahead and use it according to the terms of the licence, set up a community, make it world-famous, knock yourself out - but he has no obligation to support it or you at all.