[gentoo-kbase] Farewell to the kbase project

[Josh Saddler]

Hello. I'm one of the few developers for the Gentoo Knowledge Base
project. With the agreement of my fellow developers, I'm announcing the
closure of the kbase project.

As you know, there has been little to no traffic on this list since its
inception. Despite some mails sent out to stir up interest, there has
been no response forthcoming. There are enough threads on the forums
that indicate complete apathy towards kbase; it seems the userbase is
satisfied with the documentation provided by the GDP. Also, now that
SwifT, our project's founder, has since retired, there is even less
direction.

In short, we lack leadership, time, commitment, know-how, technical
skills, and resources to implement and maintain a knowledge base.

Therefore, it's better to end the project now rather than continue to
let it drift in limbo. In truth, it's been effectively dead for many
months now. Perhaps someday, far in the future, when Gentoo is at that
mythical "enterprise" level, a kbase may be considered necessary to the
distribution and will be resurrected. But now is too soon. It's a good
idea, but it's neither the right time nor place; Gentoo simply doesn't
need a kbase. There are no plans to revitalize the project either; the
mail I sent out some months ago confirms the lack of interest/technical
knowledge/etc.

Note that the kbase developers will still continue their work in other
areas of Gentoo; the only thing we are retiring is the project itself.

Thanks to everyone who contributed ideas to this point. So long, and
thanks for all the fish.


- Josh Saddler