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Ask Slashdot: Attracting Developers To Abandonware?
phlawed writes "I've been a Linux user since the previous millennium. I came from OS/2, which I really liked. I quickly felt at home with icewm, using a suitably tweaked config to give me something resembling Presentation Manager. I may have commented on that before. Today, I find myself in a position where my preferred 'environment' is eroding. The only force keeping icewm rolling these days is the distribution package maintainers. I can't code in any meaningful way, nor do I aspire to. I could easily pay for a supported version of icewm, but I can't personally pay someone enough to keep it alive. I'd love it if someone took a personal interest in the code, to ensure that it remains up to date, or to make it run on Wayland or whatever. I want someone to own the code, be proud of it. Is there a general solution for this situation? How do I go about drumming up interest for an old project?"
While on the topic about fragmentation... Android is another type of linux.
c++;
http://dooblet.com/alternative-to-icewm
http://alternativeto.net/software/icewm/
http://linux.descargargratis.co/icewm/alternatives
Timeo idiotikOS et dona ferentes
You might want to check into a class of crowdfunding sites that exist to fund features in free and open source software. The two main ones I could find are:
https://www.bountysource.com/
https://bountyoss.com/
Well, BSD generally attracks fewer developes than GPL, and you need to own the copyright to change the license, but outside of that it's a reasonable idea.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
While I generally agree that it's a huge WTF to think a consumer phone would be like that, when Android first appeared one of the most popular phones was the Maemo-based N900, a Linux smartphone that did indeed ship with a terminal client. Many Slashdotters seemed to consider it the pinnacle of phone design at the time, so it's perhaps not too surprising they were caught off guard by the notion that a Linux-based iPhone killer would have completely different priorities than preceding Linux-based phones. (Or, to paraphrase: "No terminal. Fewer buttons than a Nomad. Lame.")
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
You're expecting too much.
Android is just another embedded *nix. I'm happy that it's Linux. You shouldn't expect it to have a whole bunch of scripting languages, and unnecessary servers.
With all that said, it is a functional embedded system, where you *do* have the ability. to extend it do to all kinds of neat things.
They provided hooks to just about everything in Java. I'm not terribly delighted with that decision, but it's what they went with.
For most purposes, play is their package manager. For the majority of users, they'll never open a terminal. I do 99% of my phone stuff through the happy little touchscreen. That's the nice interface provided.
If you really want the CLI package manager, you'll find pm, which does just about everything you'd expect from a package manager.
You can get Apache, Perl, and pretty much whatever else you want on there. Is it going to be like developing for an x86 server or desktop? Not really. It's a different platform.
If you're going to be developing for distribution, and not just for yourself, I'd recommend about the Android way to do it.. If you're doing it yourself, grab a copy of Perl for Android, and enjoy.
If you're going to complain, well, that's up to you. At least research it a little.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
I agree it has been fairly resistant to breakage/bitrot. That may say something about the code quality.
But do you actually compile from the original tarball? The last tarball is pushing 3 years by now.
Building it gives an indication it needs an oilchange and a new filter.
The bugtracker has a fair number of patches which appear to make sense. As do various distributions.
So the short answer is: maintenance
The longer answer is really up to whoever takes ownership of the code.
Dag B
I'm sorry I can't give any good advise on how to save icemw. What I can do is give you some reasons why an Open Source developer might be interested in developing a project... You can then try to find a marketing angle that appeals to one of these: 1. At the root of all open source development is the desire to do one of two things: (A) Build a tool of profound use to self and/or others. (B) Build one's skills and/or resume. Unfortunately, desktop management systems are an innovation that we've moved beyond. Today the "wild west" is in HTML5 cloud computing, wearable devices (mobile in general), etc. Sometimes an old technology will get lucky and be used as a building-block to something new and upcoming. What makes icewm so useful? How is it useful in the context of things on the "cutting-edge" today? If you can't answer that in a meaningful way then you may need to face the fact that change is a fundamental (and sometimes sad) part of the computer industry.