Open Stack

Stefano Maffulli <stefano at openstack.org> writes:

> hello all,
>
> I met with Transifex CEO yesterday as a follow up to the i18n tools and
> processes session in Hong Kong. As we agreed, I let them know that we're
> not happy with their decision to stop developing the Open Source version
> of Transifex and that because of that we've decided to look into
> alternatives for the medium term. For the short term we're still going
> to use Transifex, therefore the meeting was to understand how we can get
> some features we need.
>
> Below are some notes from the meeting. I have put Daisy in touch with
> Dimitris so they can talk directly from now on. I'm waiting for Dimitris
> to send us an estimate of the costs for the enterprise features that the
> i18n team needs. We'll keep the conversation going once we get that
> proposal.

To be clear, this is what we decided at the Summit:

  To continue using transifex while we carefully selected and planned a
  migration to a new platform.

Transifex has screwed us over by taking an open source project
proprietary, and removing features we depended on.  That is _terrible_
behavior from anyone and not only should it not be rewarded, it
indicates that they are unreliable, and we can't have the development
operation of the project depending on a system that is deteriorating and
out of our control.

We are an Open Source project because we believe in the power and
benefits of Open Source.  Transifex has given up on that -- which of
course is their choice to make.  However, there are some really good
Open Source options for translation systems, with communities of people
who would really like us to collaborate with them.  When we do
collaborate, we get really good results.  See for instance the benefits
that the project infrastructure team has had by working closely with the
Wikimedia Foundation.

Since we do actually believe this Open Source thing is a good idea, this
is where we should spend our efforts.  And I object very strongly to our
supporting a proprietary software offering where there is benefit to be
gained by working with existing Open Source communities.

-Jim