Automatix is dead

Disclosure: I am a former member of the Automatix development team and primary web designer responsible for their web presence. Well, that was then, anyway.

While reading an old acquaintance's blog, I discovered what I feel should have happened a long time ago. The Automatix project is finally over, at least in it's current form. The official announcement says the remaining developers no longer have time to remain committed to the project, but I can't help but feel that they finally realized that their work is irrelevant, for all the reasons Iandefor listed. I certainly realized it, and so did most of the rest of the dev team, who left the project not long after I did. I won't get into all the politics that have gone on both behind the scenes and publicly in regards to Automatix. Most of it was petty anyway. I'm glad that they finally saw reason and decided to focus their resources on bigger and better things.

That's not to say I disrespect their work. There was a time when Automatix was exactly what people needed (even if it was a little... unrefined). I just don't think they should have beat a dead horse for as long as they did. Hopefully something new will come out of the ashes. Automatix still caries a heavy weight, if only in name. Maybe they will turn Automatix3 into some sort of advanced package manager for this new Linux distribution the lead developer was talking about, who knows.

My thanks go out to those that provided a great service when it was still necessary, and especially to Arnav Ghosh, the original developer for bringing me onto the team. In my time with them I did learn a great deal and I like to think that the experience helped to shape my current existence in some way.