pt123
November 4th, 2007, 10:45 PM
http://www.linux.com/feature/120635
The first incident originated with KDE's Oxygen project, an icon redesign on track for inclusion in KDE 4. Oxygen designer David Vignoni expressed his disapproval that someone outside the project team put together a theme package incorporating the project's publicly accessible icons. He asked the theme packager to remove the Oxygen icons. Commenters on his blog cheered.
The second incident cropped up in the GIMP's User Interface Redesign effort. When I researched the GIMP UI brainstorm in October, I was struck by the stark "us" versus "them" language used in the project.
The project's wiki repeatedly makes the distinction between the team and everyone else. Creation of new accounts is disabled, so that only the team can make changes.
Under the heading "got ideas?," where you would normally expect an open source project to invite participation, interested parties are instead directed to submit their comments to the GIMP UI brainstorm. "It is moderated by our team, we listen to what you show us and broaden our horizons."
But that absence of an open invitation to contribute is topped by direct rejection. In August, an excited would-be participant learned about the project and wrote to the gimp-developer mailing list volunteering to help. GIMP UI Redesign team leader Peter Sikking replied, saying, "I am afraid that I do not have positions open at the moment."
I used to be quite fond of GIMP.
The first incident originated with KDE's Oxygen project, an icon redesign on track for inclusion in KDE 4. Oxygen designer David Vignoni expressed his disapproval that someone outside the project team put together a theme package incorporating the project's publicly accessible icons. He asked the theme packager to remove the Oxygen icons. Commenters on his blog cheered.
The second incident cropped up in the GIMP's User Interface Redesign effort. When I researched the GIMP UI brainstorm in October, I was struck by the stark "us" versus "them" language used in the project.
The project's wiki repeatedly makes the distinction between the team and everyone else. Creation of new accounts is disabled, so that only the team can make changes.
Under the heading "got ideas?," where you would normally expect an open source project to invite participation, interested parties are instead directed to submit their comments to the GIMP UI brainstorm. "It is moderated by our team, we listen to what you show us and broaden our horizons."
But that absence of an open invitation to contribute is topped by direct rejection. In August, an excited would-be participant learned about the project and wrote to the gimp-developer mailing list volunteering to help. GIMP UI Redesign team leader Peter Sikking replied, saying, "I am afraid that I do not have positions open at the moment."
I used to be quite fond of GIMP.