AWF Slowing Down

[Edgar_]

@BlueSpruce
This forum stands a much better chance of survival by staying niche, rather than diversifying in that way. That's because each of those themes already has its own communities, which are often available at the cost of a free sign up.

I'd probably add a forum board to discuss strategies to make Microsoft open source the app, so the rest of the world can make the improvements it requires.

 

[Edgar_]

I'd probably add a forum board to discuss strategies to make Microsoft open source the app, so the rest of the world can make the improvements it requires.

Sort of like the recent "Stop killing videogames" iniciative, where players are imploring AAA game dev firms to stop shutting down the servers that games need, when they think the games aren't profitable anymore.

The initiative basically encourages these companies to open source their games, even in a controlled manner, allowing them to retain some oversight over what can and can't be done. That would enable players to continue enjoying the games long after their official shutdown. There are a lot of games that remain highly playable, with communities thriving decades after these games were released, such as King of Fighters, Age of Empires, GTA San Andreas, and I'm sure others here can name a few too.

Building on that idea, this forum could serve as a platform for other software packages facing a similar fate: programs whose developers are no longer willing to maintain them, yet whose user base is eager to keep them alive.

 

[BlueSpruce]

Sort of like the recent "Stop killing videogames" iniciative, where players are imploring AAA game dev firms to stop shutting down the servers that games need, when they think the games aren't profitable anymore.

The initiative basically encourages these companies to open source their games, even in a controlled manner, allowing them to retain some oversight over what can and can't be done. That would enable players to continue enjoying the games long after their official shutdown. There are a lot of games that remain highly playable, with communities thriving decades after these games were released, such as King of Fighters, Age of Empires, GTA San Andreas, and I'm sure others here can name a few too.

Building on that idea, this forum could serve as a platform for other software packages facing a similar fate: programs whose developers are no longer willing to maintain them, yet whose user base is eager to keep them alive.

Good idea, however, I seriously think Microsoft will never open source Access. In 2006, I said the same thing about Visual FoxPro and MS open sourced it into the CodePlex community. As long as MS supports VBA, Access will remain a part of Desktop Office. If VBA falls, so will Desktop Office, and users will migrate to Online Office with no Access, or Google Apps. The only thing keeping Desktop Office alive are the government and enterprise Excel/Word users. MS has declared VBA a high security risk because its very easy to hide malicious VBA code that can wreak havoc on filesystems.