On 4-4-2009 18:45, nemesis wrote:
> andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
>> On 3-4-2009 23:08, nemesis wrote:
>>> andrel escreveu:
>>>> On 3-4-2009 18:40, Darren New wrote:
>>>>> Please, this is not a troll. It's a serious question that isn't meant
>>>>> to imply the answer is "no."
>>>> 'No' would be a strange answer to your question anyway.
>>>>
>>>>> What are some other cool open-source projects that didn't take their
>>>>> design from existing products?  I.e., ones where the open source
>>>>> software was the first thing to do things that way?
>>>> POV and Blender?
>>> Blender started life as an in-house, proprietary tool.  When the company
>>> was closing doors, they realized the tool was quite complete and good
>>> enough perhaps not for going commercial, but at least to serve as the
>>> basis for an open-source project.  And so they realized an online
>>> auction and when a certain ammount was gathered, they did release the
>>> source under the GPL.
>>>
>>> The community literally bought a former proprietary product and
>>> open-sourced it.  Even Stallman gone hurrah. :)
>> What I remember is that it started as a research project (at which stage
>> it may have been available for others, so that is why I though it might
>> qualify as an answer), was then tried commercially and when that did not
>> work converted to open source by the main developer.
>> The reason that it did not work may be related to being forced to do
>> (more than) full time 'maintenance' and 'support' because people were
>> paying.
>> That danger is why our software is available to fellow researchers for
>> free. We would like to do some research ourselves too.
> 
> First time I hear of such research history.  Are you sure you are talking about
> Blender?

I am sure I meant Blender, I am not sure if I am confusing some stories 
or filling in gaps. ;)
Memory is based on something someone that I worked with for some time 
told me some years ago.
He worked later in a group where one of the developers of Blender also 
ended up after NaN stopped. That was a group that was closely linked to 
a university, so I assumed he (not Ton Roosendaal) had a university 
background. So I just assumed it all started there.

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender_(software)#History

Given that my memory is not that good and it was mentioned in passing 
that is probably more accurate.

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