Ettiquette For Restarting Abandoned Open Source Projects? 60
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?"
Fork you! (Score:5, Insightful)
I suppose you should take some time and try and contact the original developers, and see if you can get an official go-ahead. But if you can't, go right ahead.
In the worst case, if the original maintainers come back and cause such a stink about your taking over the project, they can take what you produced and merge or develop their own fork.
Re:Fork you! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Fork you! (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, when you think about it, there's really not much reason to go about it that way. If what you intend to do is take over a seemingly-abandoned project, it's more politically correct to start a new project "based on", and essentially you've got a new fork and the old code-base stays stale. On your project page put some big shiny info and links to the old project and state that it seems to be derelict and you're trying to replace it and keep yours up to date or whatever.
Eventually Google pageranking will start bringing you up on searches for their project anways as you supplant them in relevance - and most importantly if/when they come back to life they won't feel violated like they would if you had taken over the main branch of the product, original name and all, and named yourself head honcho.
Re:hmmm (Score:2, Funny)
Well, theoretically, yes, but! the computer matches would be so perfect as to eliminate the thrill of romantic conquest.
Re:Fork you! (Score:2)
I have a girl, she's been living with me for a couple of years. She's a model. And I still get to be a geek and she loves it. Up yours, get yourself one
Re:Fork you! (Score:2)
As unbelieving as you may be, it's true. I'd point you to her portfolio at her photographer's website, but she doesn't need slashdot trash stalking her.
Re:Fork you! (Score:2)
Re:Fork you! (Score:2)
The only thing cliche around here is your notion that being a geek precludes having a chick. If you'd actually respond from a named account with an email address I could send you something to prove my point, but as stated earlier, I'm not posting anything relevant here.
Re:Fork you! (Score:2)
I hope this isn't about VAX btw; that's mine and if you're one of the people who's been mailing me about it you should have got a reply suggesting you use vgetty instead..
Re:Fork you! (Score:5, Insightful)
Just do it. (Score:3, Insightful)
Not taking an abandoned Open Source project... (Score:3, Insightful)
If they didn't want you to.. (Score:1, Insightful)
Eric Raymond (Score:1, Informative)
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.
Re:Eric Raymond (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/homesteading/h omesteading [tuxedo.org]
Re:Eric Raymond (Score:5, Insightful)
silly silly people
post a link to the actual dead project!
Totally (Score:1)
My Advice: here's what to write. (Score:4, Funny)
Dear [open source guy who abandoned a project]:
I've looked with great interest at [project]. The sourceforge page shows that the project activity is nearly zero, and the last software release was done almost three years ago.
It seems like such a waste to have the project stagnate, so I wanted to take this opportunity to pass along a few comments. Namely, I want to inform you that I will be resuming development of this fantastic application. You've done a fine job, and it will be a great honor to continue in your footsteps. I also have a few other things, I feel you should know.
I don't know how to put this delicately, but: YOU LAZY FUCK, YOUR SHIT IS MY SHIT NOW. It's TOO FUCKING BAD you can't finish a single fucking thing that you started, you ass jockey sloth. NEXT TIME, WHY DON'T YOU MAN THE FUCK UP. Take a little responsiblity for ONCE IN YOUR LIFE YOU WORTHLESS SACK OF PUBES.
LAZY FUCKS like you probably don't even finish taking a shit. WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM? YOU DISAPPEAR LIKE SOME FUCKING FBI SUPA DOUBLE TOP SECRET AGENT. You are a failed open source developer. WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU RUNNING FROM? The honest answer, as a failed open source developer, is your fucking shame!
Please feel free to send me any comments or advice. I look forward to hearing from you.
Warm regards,
PMF
Hey PF, that guy died about 14 months ago (Score:1)
And the moral of this story Kids is don't post on Slashdot from an AOL account.
was it abandoned... (Score:4, Insightful)
It doesn't matter (Score:4, Insightful)
I personally think it's great you're concerned with etiquette, but the author is uncontactable. If he contacts you in the future with concerns about your work, it appears you already have the manners to listen to him, at any time.
Good luck.
Re:It doesn't matter (Score:2)
Please read the GPL [gnu.org].
There is no requirement to make any code "publicly available" ever.
Simply modifying GPLed code doesn't even require that you agree to any license.
Please try to resist the urge to talk out of your ass in the future.
-Peter
Re:It doesn't matter (Score:2)
When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it
Which bodily orifice are you speaking out of?
Re:It doesn't matter (Score:2)
The GPL can not force anyone to make changes to any GPLed program public, since it doesn't even apply to you unless you redistribute the program.
When the license is taken as a whole "if you want it" clearly only refers to people who have received a binary derived from a GPLed work.
Any restriction or burden on the use of a a GPLed program (to include modification, which is freedom 1 [gnu.org]) is at odds with the spirit of the license and the GNU, and is clearly not the intent of the license.
I am afraid you are spreading FUD about the GPL. To paraphrase, "If you use GPLed code you have to release all your code under the GPL." I don't believe that you are doing it intentionally, but you are spreading this falsehood.
-Peter
Re:It doesn't matter (Score:2)
And I'm afraid that you are spreading FUD about what the question was in the first place. Get off your damn soapbox for a second, and read the original posting.
"Nicsterrr" is "considering contributing" to this project. He is not asking about using it himself, or modification for himself. (or herself, sorry ladies)
I'll be happy to appoint you as GPL Nazi for Slashdot, but as such, you should learn to read the actual questions before going off half cocked.
Been there - Stunnel (Score:5, Interesting)
I had always planned on giving it back to him if he wanted it (I wasn't comfortable developing crypto code here in the US at the time - my rights were still very vaguely defined at the time) so in my experience it went off without a hitch, and there was no fork, just a smooth transition from one to the other.
If you want to continue maintaining it, and are releasing it under the GPL (which I assume you must), there's no reason the original author can't fork off yours or maintain his older branch separately.
I'd say make every effort to reach the original author, and if you don't get anywhere, start maintaining it. You have every legal right, and even the moral right when Open Source code stagnates.
Interesting Trend... (Score:1, Informative)
Um... me too? (Score:5, Interesting)
I once checked with the Free Software Foundation on whether they knew anything about the OS/2 port of EMACS (last check had it at 19.3.x or something really old). As they were unable to contact anybody on that, I was told that I was welcome to do what I would with it, be it build the original code or just let it fester.
That's the really cool thing about GNU - a side effect is that if somebody stops the show for some reason and abandons the project (in this case...well, OS/2, you do the math), you are welcome to pick up whatever pieces were left and run with the torch. Sourceforge even seems to allow for that, with the resources already there.
Check unmaintained-free-software.org (Score:5, Informative)
OK, am I the only one (Score:3, Interesting)
Make sure... (Score:2)
I have been approached by four or five people so far to resume work on an open source project that has been defunct, but I have been unable to respond to, like, three of them because their emails bounced! And one of these guys was from IBM...you'd figure they'd at least have email working.
Re:Make sure... (Score:2)
Re:Make sure... (Score:1)
> figure they'd at least have email working.
Nah, last I heard they have to use Notes.
Take Over the Project (Score:2)
Remember: Linux is GPL, and you can do what you want with it, but Linus owns the name. If the boys in Redmond try to put out something called Linux they will get a knock on the door from attorneys representing Mr. Torvolds. Same goes for you. Find out if the name is trademarked (unlikely, but hey, CYA).
Also, you have large an audience here at
Re:Take Over the Project (Score:1)
lynx, elinks, links, etc... (Score:3, Interesting)
I have had this happen with code I wrote. Basically I have stopped developing the code. Hey it works it does what I want it to do and I am happy with it and so are others. However there are a few that want more out of it so they send me an email and ask me if they can modify it or do whatever to it. I say yes, go ahead, just call it something different please. It works. To me it is basiclly 'open source coding courtesy'. Just tell the project owner that you want to make changes to the code or that you have made changes. The most you can do is send them an email and hope they reply. Often they will say have at it.
As an "abandoner"... (Score:3, Insightful)
N.B., you don't HAVE to contact me, but it's a nice courtesy because I might be able to hook you up with others doing similar work, or I might have something in the pipeline very similar to what you want to do but which I don't yet consider publishable.
It sounds like you did everything you could, so fork the project and give it a new name and don't worry about it. For a year or so, you'll want to mention the fork from the old project, but just in case it revives or there are other forks in progress - it makes it much easier to coordinate efforts in the future.
BTW, reasons I've dropped off the net include travel, busy with work, busy with life, busy with skills development, etc. I've occasionally dropped it because I realized that there was a much cleaner way of solving the problem, but sometimes the approach is so different that I create a new project instead of having an abrupt transition in the old one. Hell, I've even abandoned a project because it depended on another group for some critical libraries, but their attitude made it too time consuming to use their library but impossible to work around them. (Yeah, I'm talking to you Debian apt developers. Apt is great, but it's not a full CMS system.)