Development at a Standstill

[larkost]

I have been the main developer for a while now, but have had to stop work on the next version of InstaDMG as I just took a new job. Unfortunately the Intelectual Property (IP) rules of the company I am working for probably means that I can’t work on open-source projects. Despite my best efforts to get this point clarified, a few weeks into doing the job the question is still looming (as is whether I can present at conferences I am already booked at). And as I am an independent contractor things are even weirder.

While there is still a chance that I will get the green-light at some point, for the moment I am going to have to assume that I will be unable to work on InstaDMG for the foreseeable future. So if anyone out there feels like taking up the reigns, please step forward. I have some work done on creating tools to make InstaDMG easier to port to Python (and to improve the whole thing), and would be happy to talk to them about where I was thinking it would head.

Sorry about the crashing halt, but paying rent does come before open-source.

[thomasb]

Sorry to hear this. Excellent work so far! Really appreciate the time and effort you have spent on the InstaDMG project 🙂

I hope to see you at MacSysAdmin 2009 in Sweden.

Good luck with your new job!

[larkost]

Thanks! And everything is now go for the trip to Sweden, so come up and introduce yourself before or after the presentation.

[thomasb]

Will do! Looking forward to hear your thoughts about image creation and deployment, and of course about InstaDMG.

[dead2sin]

Is InstaDMG GPL’d? If it is, shouldn’t that protect it from the company regardless? They can’t claim ownership of something thats already been GPL’d.

I’m sad to see this happen because I love using InstaDMG. I’m using 1.4b4 for my leopard images and its been working great. I tried using Casper Imaging Suite and didn’t care for it (not very straight forward). I hope someone can take the reigns of this and keep it going. InstaDMG is an invaluable tool.

Thanks for all the work you’ve put into your project!

Nate

[larkost]

The question is not whether they have the right to the code I have already written and contributed (it is clear that they have not right of ownership, and are not claiming otherwise). The issue is with further work. The contract I signed as part of the employment agreement says that my work (while under the contract) is their property. So I would have no right to give further work to InstaDMG (or other projects) without their ok.

[dead2sin]

Hrmmm, that definitely sucks. Perhaps you could pull a Woz and convince them that its worthless to them like he did with HP? 😀

Who else works on this project besides you? Perhaps we could get a post going asking for people to help contribute (preferably people that are good at scripting). I would like to help, but I am a scripting noob. I look at your scripts and it takes me a while to figure out whats going on. I’d love to help design an interface for it though, that is something I believe I could help with. I would be willing to learn how to script better as well, but I’m simply not good at it right now.

Either way, I think that you/we should figure out a way to keep this going. I REALLY like InstaDMG and I would HATE to have to move to a product that is inferior and also costs $500+.

Just a few thoughts,

Nate

[Author]

Posts