Morison in Organizer open source u-turn Published: 28th Jan 2008, 23:22:09 | Permalink | PrintableFuture development to be managed by new party Popular life management package Organizer is unlikely to go open source as its author has found someone to oversee future development of the commercial closed source software. Programmer Chris Morison was last year close to releasing the blueprints to his program for all to delve into and improve before emigrating to New Zealand. However this week Chris has decided the taste of open sauce isn't right for Organizer and has handed the program over to RISC OS user Nigel Willmott to manage.
Nigel said he is close to striking a deal with another programmer to carry out further development work on Organizer but may consider the open source route if all else fails.
Chris said: "The demands of work, life and now my own family have regrettably given me very little time to further develop Organizer over the past few years. Therefore, as I prepared to emigrate to New Zealand, I initially planned to give the Organizer source openly to the community rather than abandon it completely.
"However, after being contacted by Nigel and after my own research into the fate of other open source RISC OS projects, I decided that Nigel's plan to continue Organizer as a fully supported commercial application would be the best way to ensure its continued development. After detailed discussions with Nigel I am confident that he will carry Organizer forward with the enthusiasm it deserves, and that Organizer users and the RISC OS community will benefit."
In a statement, Nigel, a senior national newspaper journalist, said: "RISC OS program development has increasingly become dependent on the largely unpaid work and effort of enthusiasts with programming skills. I hope this is one way an ordinary user can contribute to keeping the platform going, particularly with such a key applications program.
"Keeping Organizer development in one place will avoid a possible split in the application and hopefully help to keep vital programming skills working on the platform."
He added to drobe.co.uk: "I'm going to try to continue commercial development. If that doesn't work out, I'll look at the open source route out again. I have been talking to a few people who were interested in contributing and I am close to a deal with a developer."
Organizer is a desktop personal organiser featuring a calendar, diary, anniversary address book and a simple, user-friendly graphical interface. Users of the software were quick to welcome the news earlier this month.
Links
Organizer website
Drop Nigel an email about Organizer
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