Re: Open source applications as a reference platform
|
Larry Gritz
I'm not speaking officially for ASWF here, though I was involved in the planning so I think I have a good feel for what it's trying to do.
The org's priority is about helping the projects that are developed in, by, and for the film industry specifically. The three "test projects" for the CI infrastructure (OpenEXR, OpenVDB, OpenColorIO) are exemplary of the scope of what the org is trying to do -- all were developed inside VFX studios, are critical technologies used ubiquitously in VFX (both at the studios and embedded in all the major commercial software vendors making apps for VFX), have limited use outside the industry, and have very small and precarious development communities (who are also totally within the VFX industry and have day jobs that sometimes keep their attention away from the software). The industry *needs* to take proactive steps to make sure those packages don't starve for development resources or proper governance, because those projects failing will really, directly, hurt us. The top priority for the first few years and batches of projects, is to directly address issues in those kinds of projects. A package with a large, active development community, existing momentum, and a center-of-gravity of users and mission that is outside professional film production, isn't really within the primary mission of the new org, and doesn't particularly need our help. Projects like Gimp or Blender (excellent though they may be) aren't the reason why ASWF was created. Not that they couldn't be involved, depending on how the projects and the org evolve over time, but definitely not among the critical priorities that need to be addressed right away.
|
|
|