Ah, after a nice restful weekend of casually looking at the psychotic
twitter reactions, I think I owe this thread a little attention.
First off, I appreciate the overwhelming support, and I think I speak on
behalf of Jim and Tomas as well. Thank you for caring so much, and for
all
the personal best wishes. Also, I appreciate everyone who stepped in and
“cooled” down the situation. Those who see opportunity in this are
well-suited to help shape the future of the project. But enough with the
mushy stuff …
The reality of open-source software is that corporate sponsorship and
funding comes and goes, and it would appear the IronRuby project is just
going through that normal cycle. I’m grateful to Microsoft for not only
employing me, but funding IronRuby to the 1.1 release. Keep in mind that
Microsoft has not officially said anything regarding IronRuby, even it
seems
my leaving Microsoft speaks volumes. So, let’s just assume what we
suspect
to be true unless told otherwise.
This is a monumental opportunity for you all, the IronRuby community, to
rally around something Microsoft invested in, enough to a initial 1.0
release, and make it your own. However, there are two things we should
ask
Microsoft to commit to during this transition:
- *Be clear about their intentions. *I *know *this will eventually
happen, but I want to make it clear to all of you that this is the
first
step.
- *Donate IronRuby to a non-Microsoft entity *(again, assuming they
don’t plan on continuing funding). Though IronRuby is licensed under
an
open-source license, it is copyright Microsoft. IronRuby.net is owned
by
Microsoft. The GitHub “ironruby” organization is managed by
Microsoft. Etc,
etc. If the intention is to cease funding IronRuby, then a non-profit
foundation owning IronRuby, like CodePlex Foundation, would be ideal,
so
that we don’t need to jointly own the copyright. There also is
precedence in
Microsoft for internal employees to donate to the CodePlex
foundation, so
Tomas and Jim can continue to contribute.
In other words, a complete transition to non-Microsoft ownership. I’m
not
the only person with a voice here, so if there is anything else you’d
like
to see Microsoft do for a smooth transition, please speak up and let’s
discuss it. I’m hoping my leaving announcement will speed this process
along, so assume we have little time to provide “demands”.
After these things happen, then we can all start figuring how to run the
project, put infrastructure in place, and start figuring out what we
need to
accomplish to release IronRuby 1.2. Or, if none if this happens in the
time
we’d like, we can start FeRb (as @robconery essentially started to do
=)).
But let’s try to be patient with IronRuby itself for now. I’ve also
hinted
at revisiting RubyCLR, but that will be a separate project (do contact
me if
you’re interested). Also, feel free to still have the important
conversations brought up in the previous messages; in no way am I
suggesting
people stop talking.
Cory mentioned that my “leadership and vision” was lost. I think you’re
taking my job too seriously =P … but joking aside, I just wanted to
move
back to New York and it was time to leave Microsoft, but not Ruby or
IronRuby. So, for the foreseeable future, or unless someone else wants
to
step up, you can still count on me to be the face of IronRuby and write
code. Also, my new job is in the .NET world still, so to stay sane I’ll
still want to work on IronRuby. =)
This is a challenging and emotional time indeed. Again, I appreciate
everyone’s support and energy. Please keep the energy high, but
directed.
Continue discussing “why IronRuby”. Work in your private fork, take
shots at
fixing bugs or getting more RubySpec tests passing; they’ll eventually
get
integrated back. Continue blogging about how you’re using IronRuby. Show
the
world that regardless of Microsoft’s position, the community is what
makes
the project live.
Now, discuss!
~Jimmy
