23 Oct 2007
Dilemma
I’m in a big dilemma about the future of Dorgem.
My personal interest in the program is declining. You must have noticed. I didn’t blog about Dorgem much the last months. There hasn’t been a release for much too long. To be honest I haven’t touched new Dorgem3 code for months. My last webcam image on this site is uploaded at the 1st of July.
But the last year the downloads are rising. From around 2.000 downloads per month the first couple of years, to over 10.000 per month the last year. So apparently people are interested in Dorgem. So it is a pity to let go with the project at this moment.
But there is still so much work to be done and I have have so little time. There are so much other interesting thing to do. And obviously my live is more the just the computer. I have a family and we get the keys to our new home next week. I started playing darts weekly and I’m still running twice a week.
So there you have my dilemma. The general interest in Dorgem is rising and my interest is declining. So please leave your comments. (And no, I’m not desperate!)
21 Comments
Hey!
That's not a problem, you've done great work so far and made (in my opinion) one of the simplest, best webcam capture tools around. It's low on system resources, high on functionality, and very minimalistic. It doesn't have all the bulk I've seen in most programs, which is great because I use it to capture images from two webcams on my server, which doesn't even have a monitor anyway!
It would be really nice if you could at least explain this on the website as you did in your blog here -- people like me wondered why it wasn't being updated anymore and so I hunted you down and found your blog
I can't code or I would have poked around to see if I could fix the current bugs I've noticed (like how when an upload fails once, Dorgem ceases trying to upload again until it's restarted.)
Anyway, I'm glad your life seems to be going pretty well, and I agree with Zann -- maybe see if anyone else is interested in continuing Dorgem. If so, I hope it stays minimalistic and simple like it is and not bulky and bloated like the other free ones I've seen. It's probably the reason why so many people are starting to download it.
Just wanted to add my 2 cents here (of course, 2 cents are not worth much nowadays given how the US dollar keeps falling...).
Frank, I'm sure most people will entirely understand your situation because it has happened to all of us. You started a project that produced a *GREAT* result, but you just have other things in your life that you are moving on to now.
By the way, even if you don't finish v3.0, the current version is *GREAT*, and will continue to be *GREAT*. I searched quite a bit looking for a decent, low-resource webcam app like Dorgem so I could do something as simple as monitoring an oven temperature remotely. For such a simple purpose, I was reluctant to buy a shareware version as they were either bloated, or cost a ridiculous amount to register for the simple and occasional functionality I needed. I tried many of the other SourceForge webcam apps, but finally came upon Dorgem and was super pleased. The program does everything I need (and more) with a small resource footprint, and best of all, you made your work freely available to the whole world. Thank you!
Sure, there are some niggles and quirks that it would be nice to fix, but just as your increasing number of downloads indicates, Dorgem in its present state is already *GREAT* and has a tremendous amount of functionality!
I agree with the first couple of posts above that even if you decide you do not have the time/energy/motivation to continue with development of v3.0, well, it would be great if other skilled folks could keep it moving ahead. Let me also not, like they have noted, that I had no idea Dorgem was still being actively developed. Though I have been surfing to the website on SF routinely, and often checking the "What's New" page as well, it was just today that I learned about this blog. In fact, I pretty much assumed development had totally ceased as the last news item was the "19 June 2005, Nightly Builds" one. When did the "03 May 2007, Dorgem 3 pre-alpha 1 released" item appear--I have surfed to the news webpage many times since May, but did not see it till today!
Whatever the case, as I have said above, even if you don't finish v3.0 because "life has happened" (I understand, we have a 2 year old that changes everything, esp. free time!!!), please take some solace in the fact that the current version of Dorgem is *GREAT* despite some issues, and people will probably continue to use for a long time to come (I know I will!).
I recently stumbled upon Dorgem and wanted to thank you for all the work you've put into it. Whether you continue to perfect or hand if over to others who follow in your steps, I wish you the best. It's great to see niche open source apps do something well.
Dorgem is a great program, full of good ideas and very efficient. We can well understand your dilemma and hope that someone with coding skills will be able and willing to take over the project and iron out the few remaining bugs. I run dorgem for months in a row and it has not yet let me down. Thanks a lot for the work you have done on dorgem! Please search for someone to take over!
Thanks for the Prog - it works really fine !
And now winter comes - to cold for running, to warm for winter sports... Wish you a little bit motivation in long dark nights !
I love dorgem! It really is sleek and clean, no obvious memory leaks, and not a system hog.
And I run it 24/7!
Bless you for your hard work, and may any endeavor you undertake in the future, be as appreciated as this one!
Make Dorgem an open source software!!
My Thanks also,
I personally do not think any one else could do such a fine job at programming.
Dorgem {rock solid eye on the door} does better recording then Supervisioncam (except being able to record from all sources of a single card, such as pico 2000 (te 104)), it works just as well as Gotcha also.
From using the previous programs my only dismay is the lack of masking ability.
Kuato - The software is already open source.
Sorry to hear Dorgem may fade into non-existence. I just started using it after my house got robbed (wish I had been using it sooner.) Maybe someone will pick up where you left off with the source code, although that's pretty rare (if it had been written in VB or Java I might be willing to do it!)
Dorgem is a great program!
Thank you so much for your excellent job. i found it very useful and i hope you won't quit it! All the best.
Matteo
Love your program, I'd love to help out if I can. I noticed on the Dorgem page that you wanted some help with DirectShow, etc. I haven't had much experience with it myself, but I'd be more than willing to put the time in if you want to continue working on it.
If I've learned anything in my past 60 years on this planet it's that you need to be able to walk away from work related tasks and spend that time with your family. Work will always be there including those tasks you feel are/were fun and exciting but more work related. I have Grand Children now and love spending time with them. Through their rapid growth they do show me how fast one ages though so that is a reminder that time is precious and nothing can take the place of family.
Murph
G'day, great programe. i currently use it to power three weather web cams located in a remote location in outback Australia.
http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/wartli/Current/HWL.htm
as609@hotmail.com
Open it to more developers, you'll be surprised at the pace of development...
Great Software! thx
I am willing to invest in Dorgem and buy some additional features if anyone other than Frank is interested.
I would like to add the following
xvid & .FLV compression for the stream capture with ability to cut the stream into 'n' minute chunks.
ability to stop/start recording and upload from the web server.
secure the web instance with either a guid or username/passwd
Frank, if you are interested, or if anyone else is interested, please contact me or leave a post here and we can continue the discussion.
thanks, Jax
Thanks for your efforts so far Frank, i've been using Dorgem for a while now and think it's a great little program. It would be nice to have a higher resolution picture output in the next release, but as everyone else has said, there's more to life than sitting at a PC 24/7, you have to find a balance that suits you and your family.
Best of luck for the future.
Colin.
Great application and the open source aspect is great. I'm inspired to learn to code. If there comes a push to develope further on this application, I'd be very interested in contributing time and/or money. These types of video capture apps are plentiful but none with ALL the features I'd like. What a great thing to be able to contribute and see it grow into the killer app.
Great work!
Dorgem looks nice.
I have noted several problems
A, problems with 2 cameras together
B, resolution 800 x 600 is ignored
.....
And the current 3. alpha port is highly incomplete.
I have made small and easy webcam application, that is build on wxWidgets
http://www.penguin.cz/~fojtik/CamView/
Just for inspiration.
Have you considered charging for the program? I don't have a lot of experience in this area. But I have looked into some of the software resellers (ie Digital River) and it looks appealing. They provide the ecommerce part.
You could state up front that the software does not come with support. Give the users a 30 day free trial, so they can install it and test it before they pay.
Lets say you could pocket $20/copy. Even if your downloads dropped by half, that is still $20,000/month. I would find that to very motivational.
There may even be a way to keep it open source. If I were a contributor, it would not bother me at all that you were making money off of this.
Hey Frank! Life goes on, and one just can't have it all. I think if Dorgem does not excite you anymore you will stop working on it anyway, no matter how much users will ask you to continue So the real question is how to preserve Dorgem for the future generations, and not let it cease and disappear in vain.
Dorgem is already an open source project, right? I wonder if you had ever been contacted by people about contributing to the project and /or received any patches from other coders? It would be really nice, I think, if you could pass the torch to someone who is actively interested in developing Dorgem.
I would definitely update Dorgem's website on SourceForge- as you say, the number of downloads are huge, and I am sure that the website is the only place they look for updates and news, very few know about your blog and the IRC channel Also, you could specifically ask coders and/or any other interested parties to take over the project leadership and/or contribute to the project otherwise - but you should really do it on the main website, for the reasons I just mentioned above. You could always maintain any desired (if at all) level of control, too. Say, approve changes and contributions before they go from beta to the release, and so on.
Sorry for the randomness of the above - I am busy at work and have to run now I'll post more if I get any new ideas. One thing is for sure - given Dorgem's feature set with no substitutes out there, loosing it would be a real bummer and a major blow to the community. -Z