That is a question that has been asked many times on this list. Unfortunately the company never respond. It seems like it would be in there interest to transfer ownership to the community - they currently seem to have one or two people working at least part time on OL, and it has been pointed out several times that there are many people who would contribute if there was a more open governance/development process. Since the company no longer appears to do licensing or support, there wouldn't be a downside to "losing control" of the code.
I'm sure the people who would have to make the decision to open source never read this mailing list. Perhaps we should contact them directly, if we are serious about (what's left of) the community taking over OL dev. On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 12:57 PM, Chris Janik <[email protected]> wrote: > It seems like many people are interested and passionate about OL. If the > company is not very interested in updating and maintaining it, why not > fully open source it and allow the community to continue the work or fork > it? > > Chris > > On 09/06/2012 12:48 PM, Chris Kohlhardt wrote: > > Sorry not to chime in earlier. > > I remember the day I first learned about Laszlo, I believe it was in > 2003. The moment I saw what Laszlo was doing, I knew their vision was > going to lead us to the future of the web, and I believe in a lot of ways > that has come to be true. I believe Laszlo contributed in many ways as a > stepping stone to a better web. > > Additional examples include Pandora (originally a Laszlo app) and Kayak > (which borrowed ideas from a Laszlo demo we built). I have no direct > evidence to support this, but the cinematic effects that Laszlo created > sure do look a lot like what we see in iOS apps today. > > OpenLaszlo also got us (Gliffy) to where we are as a business today, and > for that we are grateful to all those who put their time and effort into > the project. > > Thank you. > > While Laszlo may not directly contribute to future web applications, in > my mind, it definitely will live on in the examples of companies, ideas, > and great people that came out of that project. > > Chris Kohlhardt > CEO, Gliffy > > On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 8:01 AM, Raju Bitter < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Two of the most prominent products built with OpenLaszlo have decided >> to not use the DHTML runtime: Gliffy and OpenMeetings. Is there any >> larger application available on a public URL, which utilizes both the >> DHTML and SWF runtime? I haven't seen a single one since the launch of >> the DHTML runtime in March 2007. >> >> Gliffy: >> http://blogs.atlassian.com/2012/04/how-gliffy-is-managing-the-risk-of-re-writing-their-product-in-html5/ >> " Speed up development time >> OpenLaszlo, the language Gliffy was first written with, compiles to >> Flash byte code. Even on the best laptops money can buy, we were >> seeing up to 30 second compile times between making code changes. By >> moving to Javascript / HTML5, a slow compilation step is no longer >> needed, and the code/test cycle is down to 5 seconds or less." >> >> In the comment section: >> "Does Chris know that OpenLaszlo now compiles to HTML5 ? Did they >> stray too far from the OpenLazlo foundation class library to just do a >> recompile with minimal changes? >> >> Hi Mark, >> Yes, I’m aware of the HTML capabilities of OpenLaszlo (before I >> started Gliffy, I worked at Laszlo Systems). We did explore the HTML >> capabilities and support of OpenLaszlo before taking on the massive >> re-write project. Unfortunately, we concluded that OpenLaszlo wasn’t >> the best tool for our needs for a variety of reasons. >> -chris" >> >> The OpenMeetings mailing list discussion: >> http://goo.gl/VO7EP >> "There have been no votes against using OpenLaszlo and compile to >> DHTML. However the OpenLaszlo project seems currently no more >> maintained. There has been no release since 2010 of the project. The >> comunity has downsized by factor of 10. >> This is the community activity in the last years: >> http://www.openlaszlo.org/pipermail/laszlo-dev/2012-June/024912.html >> >> It is likely that if we are switching to DHTML that we will run into >> issues as soon as new browser features of HTML5 will come up as the >> Openlaszlo platform does not implement them. It would be actually our >> task not only to develop OpenMeetings but also OpenLaszlo. >> >> As DHTML compilation is a quite future orientated task I think we >> should choose technology that support mobile devices and constantly >> improves its cross-browser capibilities. >> >> And last but not least the question is of course: How can we attract >> new users? Chossing OpenLaszlo does actively look-out people as they >> are not willing to learn it. We will have much better chances to find >> new contributors if we choose a technology people are familiar with." >> >> See this discussion on Stackoverflow as well: >> >> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12296700/is-openlaszlos-dual-runtime-approach-html5-and-flash-swf-still-valid >> >> - Raju >> >> > > > -- > Chris Kohlhardt : CEO : Gliffy : 415-505-6429 > > >
