Interesting, in light of our recent discussions, that Frontier, the server software that Manila runs on, will be released as open source. Dave Winer says:
And that’s what I want to announce today. At some point in the next few months, there will be an open source release of the Frontier kernel. Not sure what license it’ll use. There won’t be any grand expectations of what kind of community will develop. Even if no bugs get fixed, if no features get added, if no new OSes are supported, it will be worth it, because its future will be assured. That’s the point Ted makes, and that’s my reasoning behind this.
Since I’m pretty clueless about the code, how about some help in terms of what this means for Manila users…especially the “future is assured” part.
I run a Manila server, have done since 1999. Can’t stand football though.
Wanted to chip in to the last discussion where Userland was counted out. But, bit my tongue.
What it’ll mean for users? Well, the board change last Autumn was the biggest change for me. DW, is /was great for Userland, but for Manila, well, he kinda went off exploring, and never came back to fix bugs. It meant that Userland was a very exciting place, between 2000 and 2002. But the core product, Manila, which I was extremely ‘interested’ in was side lined, and the kernel problems ignored.
Userland, today is looking at Manila once more. And will then, I feel sure, turn to Radio. These are products Userland will be hawking.
The core will be available for anyone to hack at. I’m sure to have a go. I may even kernalise some of my plugins and tools, thus, they’ll run much faster, I get more power.
The future, for me, now, is assured. If Userland has a risky strategy and fails, I’ll still be able to develop the kernel, and what I have of Manila, I’d guess I could still use (depends on the licence) so too Radio. And, I could build my own tools, after all, Radio and Manila are just two applications.
Mind, this is all so new, that I’m wrapping my mind around this here on your site, before I write on my own 😉
Never, in a thousand years, would I have thought they’d let the kernel out. I think it smart. Very.
Yeah, I agree. This is hugely good news. There are tons of good ideas and talent in the Frontier community and I can’t wait to see this brought to bear on the kernal. Now, opening it is one thing – but who is going to manage the project? Is Userland going to manage submissions from the community?