Re: [Ekiga-list] Ekiga.net discontinued

[Damien Sandras <dsandras seconix com>]

Hi Bret,

Thank you for your email and support.

You are absolutely right...

Actually, Ekiga, the software, is not discontinued. Ekiga.net, the SIP platform that goes with it, will be shutting down by the end of the year.

However, actually, the state of the software is not better. I have actively maintained ekiga during more or less 12 to 13 years. A new version is nearly ready (without instant messaging support anymore, and without STUN/NAT support). A few years ago, I asked for help to finish it. It was a call to developers, but nobody answered.

Having to maintain the software, the SIP platform, the websites, the manuals, the documentation for that new release alone is simply not possible. It would be if I was unemployed. But in that case, the "free" as "free beer" aspect of Open Source would be annoying for me :-)

So well, if developers want to keep working on the Ekiga software, they are welcome. The code is in GNOME's git, available for everyone!

Le dimanche 02 décembre 2018 à 06:15 +0800, Bret Busby via ekiga-list a écrit :

On 02/12/2018, Damien Sandras <

dsandras seconix com

> wrote:

Hi all,

Due to the lack of time, and to the last outages, I have taken the

decision to discontinue EKIGA.NET before the end of the year.

Thank you for your support during all those years.

It has been a pleasure!

--

Damien SANDRAS

Ekiga Project

http://www.ekiga.org

Hello.

I am wondering whether, given that Ekiga is said to be open source,

rather than, as its owner, simply shutting it down, it would not be

more appropriate and consistent with the (perceived) nature of open

source,, to seek a new group of people, to take it on, for the sake of

its continuance.

More and more good  Linux software, has been abandoned/discontinued,

and, with MS apparently determined to progressively eliminate skype

(MS has been p[rogressively hobbling skype, since MS bought it out), a

developing technology in IT - the means od making video calls, amongst

other uses, is being eliminated. It is a bit like, if Alexander Bell

had decided that he had had enough of trying to develop telephony, and

said "Stuff it - I've had enough - I am going to put it all into boxes

and bury it.", rather than passing it on to others to continue the

development.

Imagine what the world would be like, if we had not had telephony.

Imagine what the wotld could be like, if we would have video calls and

videoconferencing, as commonplace, as telephony has been.

Here in Australia, members of the federal parliament, fly thousands of

kilometres, to sit in the parliament (when they can be bothered

turning up for "work" - the federal parliament is apparently scheduled

to meet, for only ten days, in the next eight months, while its

members hibernate (and, hide from each other) ), and, whilst the

Australian federal partliament does not want to progress from the

stone age, if its members used virtual attendance, through

videoconferencing, it could save the country a fortune, and, show that

Australia is not really such a stupid and backward country, that it

appears to be (we have a federal government, that is obsessed with

burning as much cpoall as possible, as it is worried about the

increasing chill in the air).

So, while MS is doing as much as it can, to obstruct communications,

with its progressive hobbling of skype, if Ekiga could be turned into

a community project, and, thence, continue to be developed and

maintained, instead of being abandoned, like so much other Linux

software, we could have hope, that communications technology will

continue to advance, instead of being abandoned  and left in unusable

pieces on the side of the road..

So, rather than simply abandoning Ekiga, I ask whether it could be

offered as a community project, so as to provide for its continued

development, maintenance, and, support, rather than simply abandoning

it.

-- 

Damien SANDRAS

Ekiga Project
http://www.ekiga.org