This project, and the related ControlFloor project, are essentially free.
Despite this, they have come into being because Dry Ark ( and effectively me ) is/are employed by different clients supporting this software. This is what enables me to have the time to be able to spend on developing and advancing the software.
As a result of this, the features that are developed are primarily determined by what is requested by clients paying for support.
I welcome any companies who wish to donate to the project or pay for support. If you wish to do so you'll need to reach out to me and we can discuss details.
Generally, the way it works is this:
It is understood that all work related to the project directly remains free; copyright owned by Dry Ark LLC, and under the custom license.
While Dry Ark is willing to do some integration work with client software that would remain owned then by the client, it is not our preference as the goal is to advance the ControlFloor project overall.
Dry Ark time is split between clients. It is a general business policy of Dry Ark not to discuss client details or requests with others, so such information is not shared publicly. This is done to allow clients to use ControlFloor in whatever way most benefits their company ( including reselling it as part of their services as they wish )
Besides existing clients, time is also spent adding features not asked for by anyone specific, and also to resolve bugs reported by the community. Such work just doesn't take priority. Some rough timeline will be made to help users understand a general idea of where the project is headed overall, but no such thing exists at this moment besides a general idea in my head.
The general plan is this:
First get iOS devices working well in the system with general parity to the sorts of things one can do with Android devices in STF. This point has almost been reached. The main work here is ensuring long term stability and ability of the system to recover from power cycles or network events.
2, ( possibly during 1 ) Allow/make the system able to work fully on Linux without the need to use a MacOS machine to do device provision. This will be made possible using both x86 and ARM providing devices.
Once iOS devices are working well, work on making the same thing happen with Android devices, thus removing the need to use STF and have a single system that supports by iOS and Android devices. I'd estimate at this time that work on Android devices will begin in 8 months or so.
During this overall plan, whatever random features / improvements that are requested by clients will be added also. This depends on what the clients are doing or how they are utilizing the system. It will change over their usage depending on their users in turn. This is not entirely predictable.
The purpose of this issue is to attempt to clarify for open source users what keeps the project alive and what is setting the timeline and priority. I hope this information is helpful for all users to understand.
All users, especially those not contributing in any way, remain welcome to use and benefit from the software. There are no "paid features", and I wish this to remain the case for the foreseeable future. Some clients will offer the software adding their own feature set on top of it, and they will be endorsed and supported in their cause of selling the combined results, but the base device farm system itself will always remain free.
Feel free to make requests even as a free user, just be patient and understand that such requests will be addressed as time is available for them.
This project, and the related ControlFloor project, are essentially free.
Despite this, they have come into being because Dry Ark ( and effectively me ) is/are employed by different clients supporting this software. This is what enables me to have the time to be able to spend on developing and advancing the software.
As a result of this, the features that are developed are primarily determined by what is requested by clients paying for support.
I welcome any companies who wish to donate to the project or pay for support. If you wish to do so you'll need to reach out to me and we can discuss details.
Generally, the way it works is this:
It is understood that all work related to the project directly remains free; copyright owned by Dry Ark LLC, and under the custom license.
While Dry Ark is willing to do some integration work with client software that would remain owned then by the client, it is not our preference as the goal is to advance the ControlFloor project overall.
Dry Ark time is split between clients. It is a general business policy of Dry Ark not to discuss client details or requests with others, so such information is not shared publicly. This is done to allow clients to use ControlFloor in whatever way most benefits their company ( including reselling it as part of their services as they wish )
Besides existing clients, time is also spent adding features not asked for by anyone specific, and also to resolve bugs reported by the community. Such work just doesn't take priority. Some rough timeline will be made to help users understand a general idea of where the project is headed overall, but no such thing exists at this moment besides a general idea in my head.
The general plan is this:
2, ( possibly during 1 ) Allow/make the system able to work fully on Linux without the need to use a MacOS machine to do device provision. This will be made possible using both x86 and ARM providing devices.
During this overall plan, whatever random features / improvements that are requested by clients will be added also. This depends on what the clients are doing or how they are utilizing the system. It will change over their usage depending on their users in turn. This is not entirely predictable.
The purpose of this issue is to attempt to clarify for open source users what keeps the project alive and what is setting the timeline and priority. I hope this information is helpful for all users to understand.
All users, especially those not contributing in any way, remain welcome to use and benefit from the software. There are no "paid features", and I wish this to remain the case for the foreseeable future. Some clients will offer the software adding their own feature set on top of it, and they will be endorsed and supported in their cause of selling the combined results, but the base device farm system itself will always remain free.
Feel free to make requests even as a free user, just be patient and understand that such requests will be addressed as time is available for them.