Posted on 2009-02-04
In late December, I sent a mail to the Compiz mail list, where I expressed my concern for the future of compiz (http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/compiz/2008-December/003236.html). Basically, it all boiled down to a lack of direction and leadership, made worse by a lack of documentation, a project structure that's nothing short of messy and two-three significant branches that had appeared.
Luckily, the community rose to the challange, and we're finally getting the project back on track. For those who used my post as a basis to predict the doom of Compiz; Sorry, we're here to stay.
This morning I sent an e-mail to the Compiz mailinglist and forum on behalf of the Compiz Council, announcing the creation of the Council (http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/compiz/2009-February/003284.html), the decision to unite the project under a single banner and the preliminary road map.
This was made possible through three separate conference calls (I missed the first) with members from the community. Thanks are due to Michael Meeks and whoever else helped make that happen. I regret that it was necessary, but it was definitley efficient, and it will allow us to work.
I would've expected more discussion on the forum and mailing list, but so far, the response has been somewhat slow. Hopefully, people will realise that we just revived a project that's been dormant for the last two years when we start dropping releases in their lap.
On that note, Compiz 0.8.0 will probably be released within 2 weeks. And, I hope, closely followed by 0.9.0, the first development release with Compiz++.