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Kdenlive Developer Jean-Baptiste Mardelle Is Missing
jones_supa writes "Kdenlive's project leader Jean-Baptiste Mardelle, who always used to let people know if he was going to be away for a couple of days, seems to have just disappeared. His last e-mail and blog post were in early July and they didn't suggest any problems. While there's many Kdenlive fans out there for the KDE-focused open-source video editor, it seems new development efforts around the project have ceased. Also the Kdenlive Git repository hasn't seen any new commits (aside from the automated l10n daemon script) since early July. There has been also people in KDE forums and Kdenlive developers' mailing list pondering about the status of the project, being left none the wiser."
Open source software sucks
Quite the opposite. Since it's open source, it can be forked and can continue development. With close sourced software, once development halts, for whatever reason, nobody else can work on it.
So this is actually an example why Open Source software rocks.
Which is different from closed source software, how?
Take SpaceMonger, for example. There one day, gone the next. Guy's still around, personal blog notes the disappearance, and essentially told people to just not ask. Well alright, then.
I do agree that when an open source software project goes stagnant because one or more active developers quit, it's rather indicative of the fact that just because the source is available that there is no guarantee whatsoever that somebody else will pick it up. But at least they can.
That's assuming the user base had any respect for him.
People who develop open-source software in my experience have to learn to deal with being routinely harrangued, insulted, threats of death, all because...say, you decided to go with GPLv3 instead of the BSD license.
I can imagine it being pretty easy to walk away from all of it if that were the case, if you pour your heart into something and it goes entirely unappreciated you don't have much reason to continue. Unfortunately, until someone hears from him or someone else takes over, kdenlive is at a standstill.
It took me two minutes to get an address and telephone number for the guy. Maybe it's current, maybe it's not. But instead of just pointlessly speculating, maybe somebody who personally knows him from KDE events should give him a call and see how he's doing. On a side note, I can't believe this is on /. Phoronix? Yes, because its a worthless gossip rag. It's getting really old with /. taking crap articles from Phoronix and putting them on the front page.
That's the precise reasoning - you cannot make an observation containing the slightest criticism of something unless you yourself participate in that activity.
That's why aficionados of basketball who don't play in the NBA scrupulously avoid any implicit criticism of players, coaches, officials, or owners when they discuss the sport.
And he has no time to work on the pet project anymore .... ... ...
or he sold the IP to a private company who change the license
or simply got fed up with people asking him to do all the work for free
The fact that it's a passion-project would be precisely why you'd drop it without warning. Imagine you were working on a product for money and the money dried up, you'd stop developing. The same thing happens to a passion project when the passion dries up.
On top of that, if it's like anything I've ever lost passion for it's usually a case of not logging in for a day, and then a couple of days, and then weeks, and by the time you've accepted that you're actually not ever going to log in again it seems pretty pointless to go and tell people "hey guys I'm gone", especially if you're user base are jerks.