Re: OpenDarwin shutting down

On Wed, Jul 26, 2006 at 06:40:34PM, Christian Brunschen wrote:
> 
> However, I am slightly confused by the timing. After all, Apple's  
> World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC), where the next version of Mac  
> OS X (10.5, 'Leopard') will be previewed, is just around the corner -  
> it will take place less than two weeks from now. That might have been  
> a forum for some direct feedback into, and back out of, Apple, which  
> might have led to perhaps improved communication between Apple and  
> OpenDarwin (yes, unlikely but possible), or might indeed have further  
> clarified the issues; either way, I would have thought that with WWDC  
> so close by, it could have made sense to see if anything, positive or  
> negative, might be derived from WWDC. Who knows, Apple might even  
> have some Darwin-related announcements planned for WWDC, which might  
> affect this decision. Likewise, even if any information gotten from  
> WWDC were to only further support the decision to shut down  
> OpenDarwin, that would have been useful extra recent background for  
> the decision.

Waiting until WWDC would not have accomplished anything.  If you have
read some of my commentaries on the state of things, you know this is
not somthing that will be "fixed" overnight.  There is no possible
announcement or discussion that could happen at WWDC that would change
OpenDarwin's fate.  You can't make up 6 years of regression and
distrust at one event.  Given that this is the first WWDC that does
not have an Open Source Feedback Forum since 2000, that can be taken
as an indication of Apple's desire for communication on the subject.

The only thing waiting until WWDC to announce OD's closure would
have done is possibly steal some of Apple's thunder.  While that may
be temporarily gratifying, it would accomplish nothing.  We are
done, I am done.  Closing OpenDarwin is not a publicity stunt or a
bargaining chip.  It is an announcement of a sad fact, and an 
admission that 6 years of my, and other's, involvement has been a 
failure or worse, contributed to a marketing scheme.  This is not 
something to be defiantly proud of or gloat over.  We're done, we'd 
like to move on and to the best of our ability not screw over the 
people that helped us.

Rob