What A Long Strange Trip It's Been

I love Haiku. That probably doesn't surprise anyone. I am phenomenally proud of the progress, both past and present that the project has made. I have lead the project since its creation, including running each of the WalterCon events, doing a great deal of public speaking, starting the non-profit, writing around 100 articles and editorials for the newsletter, fielding hundreds of emails, random phone calls and occasionally even writing some code. I have received a job offer because of Haiku and gotten back in touch with a number of old friends as a result of the publicity that Haiku (and, indirectly, I) has received. I have had the honor of meeting a bunch of the former Be crew and seeing the doubt and question fade as they saw what we had created. I had the distinct honor of being introduced by JLG.

But.

It has also been a very long six years. I can't possibly count the thousands of hours that I have invested, nor the thousands of dollars. I work as a software engineer in my day job, so I have spent literally all of my waking hours staring at a monitor for too long. Additionally, my personal life is in a state of very rapid flux. But, also, this isn't fun anymore. There is no joy for me in Haiku. That isn't a reflection on the project or the people involved; I am just not having fun doing the same things over and over. That has probably become obvious in some of the lack of attention to detail on my part. I apologize for this. I should have done this sooner.

So, with this, I am moving on. The admin team is debating what sort of a structure is needed to run Haiku well. I wouldn't advocate for the benevolent dictator job; the project needs a good hierarchy. Part of my burnout has come about because I have tried to take on too much.

I believe in Haiku. I have every bit of faith that it can and will become a leading desktop force. I am not abandoning a sinking ship. This is more like the transition from the builder's sloop with a "master architect" to the real captain and crew of the ship. The people who build a ship in dry dock don't try to captain her out on the open waters.

In leaving, I have a few words that I would like to say...

To the active contributors: Don't give up. We are almost there. The light at the end of the tunnel is clear. Don't give in to feature creep. Boring though it is, fix the bugs, better the performance and put a stable 1.0 out there first. Then go nuts with all of the cool and crazy stuff that we have talked about.

To the admin team: management by consensus doesn't work. Haiku needs strong, decisive leadership. A few someone's who will listen to people, but then lead where they think is right, regardless of the fallout. When the project started, we had about 1/2 of the people insisting that we use GPL, 1/2 insistent that we do not. Sometimes you just need to do what is right and let the chips fall where they may.

To the community: remember that Haiku is a volunteer project. Respect and be kind to the volunteers. Imagine them standing next to you while you write emails and forum posts. Would you really say that if the team was in the same room as you? I have seen some of the nicest people that I have ever met say some of the least kind things with the anonymity of a computer in front of them. Also leave room for differing opinion. As with the case I referred to with the GPL, can you at least see that honest, intelligent people can disagree? If you want more of a voice in the project, help out. There have been dozens of times where help has been requested. Testing is valuable. Running through old bugs and seeing if they are still valid is useful. Writing user level documentation is useful. There are dozens of ways that a person who is really inclined can help out; if you want to help and you look, you will find some. Much like with the way that I started Haiku, product talks and opinion walks. Don't make a big announcement. Spend a weekend and build something, then announce. If you aren't sure, ask if one would be needed and/or if it exists. What it is doesn't matter - it could be a user guide, it could be a set of tests for POSIX compliance, it could be a "how to build" page.

Friends, it has been a really good run. I thank you all for your love and support. I think that this is the greatest OSS community in the world and I look forward to using Haiku as a user and as an app developer.

Michael