Why FAR Manager it's kinda' dead project ...

You want to talk about Far Manager, but don't know where to turn?

Does FAR have to be open-source?

Yes, i'll be happy to work on future development
23
45%
Yes, i'll use it with more pasion
18
35%
No
7
14%
I don't give a ****
3
6%
 
Total votes: 51

intersol
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Why FAR Manager it's kinda' dead project ...

Post by intersol »

I hope this message will pass the "moderation".

As most of the users are developers we can see that the project activity it's almost stalled. An active product should have updates at least monthly.

Why? It's simple FAR it's not selling and it's not an open-source project.
!sell(commercial) && !opensource => dead

I really suggest the opening of FAR-Manager as GPL. This could make it an real success and the original developer will receive benefits from tehnical support.

I want to open a pool about this, maybe we can get an opinion.
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t-rex
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Post by t-rex »

This topic was discussed a thousand times, but no consensus could be reached.
Daeriel
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Post by Daeriel »

Can you please put some links or materials of such discussions. I find this quite interesting. FAR is great project but it seems to be there's no evolution at all.
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t-rex
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Post by t-rex »

Well the discussions were mostly in russian and in a closed alpha testers mailing list, although some are available in the plugring@yahoogroups.com public mailing list.
Daeriel
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Post by Daeriel »

Well it's not a problem for me to read russian. But look at the forum statistics:

Our users have posted a total of 83 articles
We have 30 registered users
The newest registered user is Troo
In total there is 1 user online :: 1 Registered, 0 Hidden and 0 Guests [ Administrator ] [ Moderator ]
Most users ever online was 5 on Fri Apr 01, 2005 3:50 am
Registered Users: Daeriel


Doesn't it look like a taunt? Correct me if I'm wrong but I think this is a kind of a results of the low project activity. Developers have to do something if they want someone to be interested in using FAR.
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t-rex
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Post by t-rex »

Well you should check the russian forum if you want to see real statistics :)
henrypijames
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Post by henrypijames »

t-rex wrote:Well the discussions were mostly in russian and in a closed alpha testers mailing list, [...]
I think that alone is proof enough for the "dead" argument...
henrypijames
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Post by henrypijames »

Seriously, I often feel annoyed and even insulted as a non-Russian-speaking user about how everything around FAR has (or had - it's great there is finally this English forum) to be Russian.

I usually have 3 instances of FAR on my computer, it's my most frequently used application besides Firefox. And I have "converted" many other "power users" to use FAR as their default file manager, and they all don't speak Russian.

What I'm trying to say is, if FAR hasn't been so Russian-centric, it might have been much more popular.
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t-rex
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Post by t-rex »

What you mean by russian centric? All documentation, interface and etc. are available in english, what else do you need? If you talk about the forum's activity then its only you the users can make the difference.
You can't expect the russian users to start speaking english all of a sudden.
henrypijames
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Post by henrypijames »

By "Russian-centric" I meant:

1. For years there was no way for us English speaking users to exchange ideas and experiences with fellow FAR users since the FidoNet channel was Russian only. And there was absolutely no way for us to be informed (or even participate by joining discussion) about FAR development.

2. Many plugins have only documentation (and even description) in Russian, I think the FAR Plugin Ring might have been able to encourage the authors more to provide English docs.
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t-rex
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Post by t-rex »

1. For years there have been an english mailing list plugringenglish.

2. Many plugin authors just don't know english and it's hard to keep the documentation in two languages, however most plugins do come with english docs.
henrypijames
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Post by henrypijames »

t-rex wrote:1. For years there have been an english mailing list plugringenglish.
You mean this "plugringenglish" mailing list has been "misused" as the "inofficial" English mailing list of FAR core developers?
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t-rex
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Post by t-rex »

I say that there has been for years a mailing ling for egnlish speaking users (plugringenglish) along with the mailing list for russian speakers (plugring).
Hory
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Post by Hory »

I've got to say that in this rhythm FAR Manager will eventually die. I appreciate everyone that worked on it... and I will still use it for at least ten years, even without future versions. But I think that it would benefit everyone if it went opensource. There's no reason to keep it commercial if no one is interested in it. With an open-source community + donations, I think there would be even more to win, for both the developers and users. I am curious, what were the arguments against it going open-source? I don't know where it has been discussed...
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t-rex
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Post by t-rex »

Well, the main reason brought against FAR going open source is that there is quite a big chance that none compatible versions of FAR will appear on the internet which will greatly harm plugin developers and might even cause FAR to die even faster (there is the example of DOS Navigator).
And although I myself is pro-open source, I think that now is not the right time going open source.
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