Spanner in the machine

[plakboek]

Xara - website I read an interesting report about the failure of a proprietary software developer to open the source code to the graphics package Xara Xtreme. A quick glance at the website home page revels no new new announcements and a stagnant set of download updates. Ultimately we can expect code rot to eat away at the health of this once promising project.

The article lists two important lessons for open source developers:

1. You can't boss around volunteers
   at best you will drive them away, and at worst you will drive them toward the competition.
2. Collaborating with a community means willingness to adapt and change.
   The community may move in directions that you did not anticipate before you began; if you refuse to listen to it or refuse to make adjustments, you are likely going to kill it. (Willis 2007)
   

For now, the well supported FLOSS graphics software packages GIMP and Inkscape should provide the art and graphics features required by most users.