This is to announce and explain that we’re slightly modifying the relationship between syncthing and Ind.ie. You may recall that I announced that syncthing was going to be renamed Pulse and live under the stewardship of Ind.ie, almost exactly a month ago. This isn’t happening, at least not right now and not exactly in this manner. Syncthing is going to remain syncthing.
The reason for this is personal. I, in the position of lead developer, have felt that the fit between me an Ind.ie isn’t really what I thought it was. Ind.ie has taken on a fight against the currently ruling business and privacy models, and this is a fight I support. Many others support it too as we can see from the currently ongoing funding drive, and I wish Ind.ie nothing but success. But it’s also a fight that I don’t have the energy or will to be an active part of. Having syncthing be a cornerstone in this fight would make that involvment unavoidable, so in the end it would mean either withdrawing myself from syncthing or disassociating syncthing from Ind.ie. I chose the latter.
Obviously announcing one thing and then reverting it and doing something else looks bad; both for myself and for Ind.ie. Sorry, Ind.ie! But I believe in this project, the initial decision I made unfortunately wasn’t fully thought through, and I believe in correcting mistakes and moving on.
Ind.ie is going to do their thing and may indeed maintain and release a fork of syncthing under the name Pulse. They have my blessing to do so - if that is what happens, it isn’t a hostile fork. I think projects should be free to move in the direction they need to, and it’s quite likely that Ind.ie will want different features and optimizations for Pulse than we need in syncthing. On the other hand, it’s also likely that a bunch of stuff would be common and the advantages mutual. Only time will tell what happens here.
I don’t think this decision looks poorly on syncthing, you or ind.ie. You made a choice, then realised that it wasn’t feasible in the current circumstances, so re-considered. Much better to make the decision now than in a year’s time when the pressure could have caused misgivings and problems.
Thank you for the lovely write up, Jakob. As @ProactiveServices said, we tried it out with the best of intentions and are now adapting to the initial response
In summary, we look forward to iterating quickly on it using a design-led process and hopefully contributing back some useful things to Syncthing in the process.
Of course Syncthing/Pulse had an different Focus, but i really hope that Pulse is also Focusing on things that Syncthing urgently needs (Like Data Encryption, Rename Support, Better Useability etc.)… so that Syncthing could take advantage from this Changes…
You’re creating waves with Syncthing, and this is just the beginning. Make it your legacy @calmh. If you get stuck for manpower, have you considered submitting Syncthing for FSF projects? I remeber when BTSync came out they were desperate to start an open competitor.
Not at all - both @calmh and @aral openly informed your users about these decisions. I’m sure both projects will continue to grow if you continue with clear communication and technical awesomeness
I think you’ve made the right decision, and I applaud the open manner of communicating this clearly to SyncThing users. SyncThing is an awesome piece of software that is already quite useable and maturing rapidly, cross-platform support and all.
I hope you continue to enjoy working on SyncThing. Security-focused free software projects like this can help us reclaim a bit of our digital privacy, and you deserve credit for helping us achieve this goal.
However, the project is “far from ready for mass consumption, but it is a usable proof of concept and tech demo”. syncthing is released under the MIT license.
i think this is really outdated. after some month testing i use syncthing now productive : )
@calmh should get in touch with them and maybe syncthing can become an FSF project and get some more contributors.
i am really happy that the awesome name is used again. it’s simply perfect for this software!
Yeah, I’ve seen that one as well. It seems rather inactive and disorganized. Not super clear to me who to talk to or if there’s anything actually happening there.
(Also looks to be a fine collection of people who prefer to talk about doing stuff instead of, you know, actually doing stuff. That’s a red flag to me and what got me annoyed enough to start this whole thing…)
It doesn’t hurt to try, the worst thing that can happen is that the issue count on github will start growing.
The best thing can happen is that we’ll get pull requests, increase user base, make people more happy
Plus we will get to prove how worthy the people on libreplanet are, make sure you send them the Megaforce poster with your email, explaining what Syncthing is looking for.
I did some diving in #freesync, #libreplanet and #fsf. I don’t think I’m the guy to do interfacing with the FSF. If someone else wants to give it a try, be my guest.
Glad to hear you were able to come to this conclusion early enough and in an amicable way. Syncthing is the greatest software project I discovered this year.
Question for @aral and @calmh: Will the Pulse fork be protocol-compatible with Syncthing? I recently switched from Android to iPhone (which I imagine will eventually get a Pulse app), and I’m wondering if I’ll be able run a mixed Pulse/Syncthing cluster.
What @calmh said. George starts full time tomorrow & interoperability is the first thing he’ll be looking at. We’ll open a thread here so we can chat about it.
Re: iPhone port — I’m going to be talking to @dapperstout as it’s something we’re interested in too.
Yes! don’t change the name, you already have a great name. SyncThing is a lovely name and describes what the software does. Pulse sounds and feels far from what this software intended to be and do.
Plus we will get to prove how worthy the people on libreplanet are, make sure you send them the Megaforce poster with your email, explaining what Syncthing is looking for.