On Jul 6, 2009, at 3:17 AM, Nevin Pratt wrote:
> There's no right or wrong answer to the following three questions.
> And,
> every response is meaningful, because it helps reveal the general
> sense
> of direction that the community is feeling.
>
> ***********************
> Question #1: Of the various Squeak forks (such as Croquet, Pharo,
> etc.),
> what is your feeling of their relative popularities at this point in
> time, and how does that compare with the current popularity of the
> base
> Squeak distribution?
>
> Question #2: This is related to the above-- what is your feeling of
> the
> relative popularity *trend* of each of the forks, and how does that
> compare with your feeling of the *trend* of the future popularity of
> the
> base Squeak distribution?
>
> Question #3: What is your justification for your answers to the above
> two questions?
> ************************
>
> I'll begin with my own answers...
>
> ...I'm beginning to feel like the Pharo fork currently now has maybe
> 50%
> or more of the popularity of the base Squeak distro, and I'm beginning
> to feel like Pharo is headed to become the dominant distribution in
> the
> future, surpassing the original Squeak distro. �And I base that
> feeling
> on several observations:
>
> 1. The email traffic comparison on the "Pharo-project" email list
> compared to the email traffic on "The general-purpose Squeak
> developers
> list", and the observed trend in such traffic.
>
> 2. The number of developers posting on the Pharo-project email list.
>
> 3. The specific developers posting on the Pharo-project email list
> (known Squeakers who have contributed heavily to Squeak in the past).
>
> 4. The fact that Seaside development has moved to Pharo.
>
> At one time I wondered if Croquet would become the dominant Squeak
> fork,
> for the simple reason that it had a business organization "officially"
> supporting it, similar to what Squeak had in the Disney days. �But
> now I
> think I would bet my money on Pharo.
>
> What do you think? �And why?
>
> Also, remember, there's certainly nothing wrong with several
> "dominant"
> forks existing. �But of those, one of them will still be the most
> popular overall. �And I'm curious about thoughts of which one that is,
> and which one that will become, and why you think so.
>
> Nevin
>
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