RE: [Inkscape-devel] RE:Xara Announcement
Also the guys are under intense pressure to ship a brand new
commercial
Windows release right now and so have very limited time. Indeed
right
now we have very limited number of developers purely on the
open-source
Well the guys you may come across are Phil and Gerry both been with Xara since well before our Windows exploits back to Acorn RISC days. Phil was even involved in some Atari ST products we did in historic times. But they've worked on just about everything including Artworks the ARM based (pure assembly language) predecessor to Xara X and Impression our Quark-like DTP package. Both have huge experience across the board. Phil probably has more ownership of the technical architecture than any. Gerry has very broad experience of whole computer and Windows gamut. However neither have that much experience (perhaps none) of Linux as far as I'm aware).
Neil our CTO has Unix experience going back - more project manager, but a very good understanding of architectural and OOP things.
Er, who else. Luke might post from time to time - he's the main guy working on the Linux port right now (and has more Linux experience than any of us). Others you may come across but probably wont be posting here much.
Oh and although I'm CEO I used to program (mostly assembly language, authored the products that the company was built on 25 year ago, e.g. Wordwise a word processor that was very popular in the 80s in the UK) and so understand, in some detail, all the concepts of what we're doing. So we are a very techy orientated organisation. (Maybe that's why we're not bigger than we are because I should be more marketing oriented).
Having come from a background where every byte mattered and processors were pathetic, that's perhaps where and why we get this speed / space efficiency thing from. It also means, that as CEO, I don't get or accept any technical BS from my people about what is and is not possible. If they come to me and say "can't be done" I'm always pushing back to ask why, there must be other angles we can take, and usually we find a way. I am also a fanatic about detail, trying to find better more slick ways to do UI and cutting anything that is not necessary. I'm an total believer in the KISS principle, Occam's razor and such approaches.
And although over the decades there is not a class of software we've not been involved in, from games to databases, spreadsheets, interpreters and compilers, even hardware design, I'd say that we've been involved in publishing software more than anything - be it word processors, Postscript interpreters (this is where our rendering engine started life 15 years ago), DTP packages and graphics software of all types. So a pretty broad background.
On Fri, Oct 14, 2005 at 09:13:29PM +0100, Charles Moir wrote:
Well the guys you may come across are Phil and Gerry both been with Xara since well before our Windows exploits back to Acorn RISC days.
Cool, thanks, this gives a lot of insight into who you all are.
I won't introduce all the 'scapers; too many to name and I'm sure I'd miss someone. ;-) Plus I'm sure they'll introduce themselves.
But just to give some general introductions, nearly ever Inkscaper is someone who started as a user of the software. Many also were software developers, or had technical skills/interests, and thus just started hacking on one corner or another and eventually became core developers. I think this has given Inkscape a powerful advantage; the developers have a deep intrinsic understanding of our project's requirements because they are also the customers of these features, and thus can hold themselves (and each other) up to high standards.
We also vary a huge degree in personalities, backgrounds, and so forth. Some people are really into the larger strategic ideas, others are interested in particular features or aspects; some are stubborn perfectionists, others more freely conceptual; some are hard core into the internal technologies, others are still learning programming; some focus on the codebase, others on the project infrastructure, others on translation, others on documentation. The makeup of the project team also is constantly changing, as new users follow the path towards developmanship.
As far as my own background... I tend to be mostly interested in the sociological/organizational aspects of open source projects so while I can code, I mostly enjoy just helping others get involved, and take care of some of the chores (mailing list admin, website updates, etc.) so others can focus on the more important stuff.
Professionally, I was originally hired into OSDL as a web/database developer, but I tired of that after a couple years and moved into the testing department. Today I lead the NFSv4 testing project, and help coordinate efforts from a number of companies; a lot of this involves just helping businesses learn how to interact in positive ways with the open source communities that they need to be part of. Before OSDL I worked in the aerospace industry for about ten years doing a mix of programming, diagramming, and spacecraft propulsion engineering.
Bryce
Charles Moir wrote:
Sounds like you are trying to recruit the Inkscape team to work for you :) Can't blame you - it's a terrific and talented group. And I would think most of us can sympathize with you - you have a technically good product and are staring in the face of gorillas that want to own the market and have the resources to roll over anyone in their way.
BUT, your analogy to the ants cannot survive somehow reminds me of Darl McBride saying there can be no free Linux. Probably Xara can't survive but Inkscape is surviving quite well and can in the future. Kind of the way the US can beat another army - they can't beat the insurgents (oh and that's true of the Nazis vs the resistance, the Romans vs the Goths). And sorry, but your concept of purely selling a value added free software package is most likely doomed - ie Real Player or the way Red Hat gave up on the boxed distro (RH and Novell sell to the Enterprise) - on the individual side you get crushed on the top by the commercial gorillas and crushed from the bottom by the free stuff.
But there's hope. However, you have to do more different things - like come up with a way to make this Pantone license thing irrelevant - the way Google's doing it to Windows, Apple is doing it to Windows Media Player. As Tom Peters says - you need to get around some freaks - though I prefer the phrase "unconventional thinkers" :)
John Taber wrote:
I think it was more of a history about their team than stating a desire to acquire ours. Not saying they don't want to utilize our team, but, that will go both ways.
I don't think that attacking their business plans will get anyone anywhere. You think they'll fail, I think they'll succeed. Honestly, I have a feeling it will be a lot more successful than people are estimating. For example, when we are looking to upgrade Illustrator at my office next time... we'll be upgrading to Xara.
Even though, these days I use Inkscape for most of the Illustration I do for the firm, it STILL gets passed to Illustrator for the pre-press work. And even though I've been an Illustrator user for over a decade, had I actually /tried/ Xara a few years ago when we purchased our last copy of Illustrator, we would have opted for Xara instead because it provided the features we need for a MUCH more reasonable price (and a better UI to boot). Unfortunately I was stuck in a fanboy bubble at that point.
And don't forget that RedHat and Novell have still found ways to remain profitable (every company has ups and downs), and my guess is that Xara will as well even if this won't do it for them.
-Josh
participants (7)
-
Bryce Harrington -
Charles Moir -
Jean-Francois Lemaire -
John Taber -
Jon A. Cruz -
Joshua A. Andler -
Ralf Stephan