Hoping not to start a semantic debate, but the phrase "open source" does not mean anything other than "viewable source code" when taken at face value.

When dealing with Free software, it is good to remember that the freedom to fork or replace something doesn't always make it a good idea to do so.

In this case, the author may not wish to maintain the original module, or he/she may simply need some time to digest the patch, recover from illness, etc. Unless the code is from Damian Conway, most module authors are not paid to be full time Perl gurus and get to things when they can.

In the meantime, BlueLines has a working patch that adds his feature. Which proves that Free software is working. And obviously if his/her company is going to distribute a package of software they will use this if they cannot get an improved 'official' patch in time.

I would hope for the sake of users everywhere and the Free software community as a whole that Mandrake and Red Hat communicate as often as possible about changes and extensions. Technically they are not in the business of selling software widgets, so it seems wasteful to reproduce the same extensions at both companies. However, if they check with one another, and Red Hat says they don't plan to do XYZ, then of course Mandrake will go ahead and do XYZ, and hopefully someone at Red Hat will pay a marginal amount of attention to the progress of XYZ.

In the case of things like Linux kernels, obviously Linus or Alan Cox are not going to spend their time moving the kernel to some new platform, but groups working on extensions routinely submit patches back to the maintainers as often as possible.

While most Free software is the brainchild of one developer or a small group of developers, each project usually has a large team of peripherally interested parties as well. Doing things like communicating, having patience, asking permission are all parts of good teamwork.

In reply to Re: Re: What to do when a module is no longer being maintained by ichimunki
in thread What to do when a module is no longer being maintained by BlueLines

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