behold: Rudolf's corner

Hi all.

The time has come for me to make a statement about my future concerning BeOS/Haiku. I owe you that I think, since I've been a very regular contributor to this community upto now.

I've been on holiday for a few weeks in Spain just now, in a tiny place where 'time stood still' so to speak. The old village where I stayed is situated in the mountains. There's nothing much to do there, except enjoying the overwhelming nature, do long walks, think, talk with the people I travelled with, eat a orange here and there, and drink a beer. Much in contrast to my busy 'normal, daily life' back home. And much in contrast to 'normal' holiday 'resorts' I tended to visit. Being in this village has been an experience I will *never* forget, it's changing my life. It's good. I feel it in my heart. I have to follow this new path unfolding before my eyes. It's my destination. It's real life. I love it, I need it.


About my (future) contributions for BeOS/Haiku.

As you all probably know, I've spent most of my freetime on BeOS related development. This means that other aspects of my life have been 'neglected' a lot. I've always felt it deep down and I knew it had to change someday. Well, that day has come.

So, I'll nolonger work on all those drivers much. Maybe even I'll quit alltogether. I'll keep following Haiku progressing towards a full, useable 'replacement' operating system for BeOS though. I really hope it will succeed. I love those systems. They are intuitive and easy to use. They make using computers a breeze. Unlike using Windows or Linux which scare me away and make me feel frustrated.


Here are my suggestions:
- I'll do one more Matrox driver release pending updated TVout support completion for G100 and G200 cards. There's not much work left todo for that.
- I now nolonger support any of the programs and drivers I wrote, apart from maybe tiny patches like adding cardID's and such which virtually cost no time to do.
- For the nVidia driver I might continue to do a bit more work for now though: I'm talking about testing a bit with 3D support for newer cards so the new Linux open DRI driver has an improved chance on success. The efforts I'll do are minimal though: only a few nessesities and only if I can manage this while putting in small amounts of time.
- We (the BeOS/Haiku community) need (a) new maintainer(s) for all stuff I did, including for the nVidia driver. I won't be responsible any longer for these items. I might be able to guide someone a bit though every once and a while.
- I have a few items here that can be given to new maintainers: a VIA Nimble V5 and several Matrox graphics cards.
- nVidia hardware I'll probably need a bit longer for those 'final' 3D tests. Some cards can be given to a new maintainter in a bit of time though: and some I'll keep because I had to purchase them. Unless these will be payed for.
- a General 3D related thought: For 3D support I suggest 'porting' Linux DRI drivers back to Haiku 'in the end', including the new nVidia DRI driver that's in the process of being developed. My nVidia driver is probably best left alone in the end, since it's based on an very old version of MESA. It's just a proof-of-concept, along with a good testing bed for hardware knowledge development (for the new DRI driver 'for instance').


Conclusion.

So, that's about it! It's been a hell of a fun ride! I've given my *very* best efforts to this community, I hope you see that. I don't regret having done that, though it came at a cost. This was a (technical) chapter I needed in my life. it's done now however.


Before continuing life, hopefully finding inner tranquillity; Before continuing life in a much more complete, sensitive, loving and personal way, I need to do some soul searching. So, I'm taking a time-out. I'll probably not respond to Email much.

Thanks for your awesome support people!!

Kind regards, and the very best to you all.

Rudolf.