Hi,
	Sorry to see exobox go but good luck and thanks!

cheers

bruce

Duane Maxwell <dmaxwell at exobox.com> wrote:
> All -
> 
> Just wanted to let the group know that, due to capital market conditions of
> which I'm sure everyone not living under a rock is aware, exobox is ceasing
> operations completely this evening.
> 
> Exobox was using Squeak to implement an extremely easy to use,
> Internet-savvy, user environment for deployment on Internet appliances.
> Some of you may be familiar with devices such as the i-Opener or Compaq MSN
> appliances, which have failed in the market for a number of reasons, one of
> which is poor software.
> 
> For all intents and purposes, we succeeded in that effort - we were pretty
> close (within six months) to completing the project, and had made some
> rather extraordinary advances in usability and overall look-and-feel.   The
> use of Squeak gave us an edge in development that probably cut many many
> man-years off the development.  In fact, we often encountered skepticism
> that what we were showing actually worked, rather than clever smoke and
> mirrors.
> 
> The ultimate demise of exobox had little to do with the project or the
> choice of technology - the crash of the dotcoms scared all sources of
> capital out of the tech sector.  Those few remaining were chasing the next
> bubble - wireless, optical networking, etc - and the slowdown in PC sales
> made prices drop so far that the Internet appliance niche all but vanished.
> 
> Hopefully, exobox was a good citizen in the Squeak community.  We released
> several interesting bits of code, and released any of the core changes we
> made.  We provided assistance, both public and private, in the maintenance
> of ports, though our primary focus was on the Linux port.
> 
> Speaking for myself, I thoroughly enjoyed working with some of the most
> talented folks in the Squeak community, many of whom I was able to attract
> to exobox.  The Squeak list appears to be the only mailing list on the
> Internet immune to Godwin's Law.
> 
> As to the technology that exobox developed, all of it is transferring to
> ideaLab!, which is effectively the parent of exobox.  I have asked Bill
> Gross whether or not I can release the code to the community under the
> Squeak License, but have not yet received a definitive answer - I know he
> is a firm believer in what we were doing, and is perhaps holding out hope
> that the market environment will change.  I, on the other hand, would
> rather the code be released - it would advance the Squeak vision
> tremendously.  I encourage SqC, particularly Alan, to reinforce my request.
> 
> I was hoping to post some screenshots of our environment for public
> consumption, however, since minnow appears to be down, I guess that won't
> happen.
> 
> As to the exobox people, many of the Squeakers we had have formed another
> group, and hopefully some of exobox's ideas will continue to thrive there,
> and I encourage them to continue to interact with the bulk of the
> community.  I'm sure that portions of exobox's work will at least find
> their way into the Stable Squeak effort.
> 
> I hope to continue to contribute to Squeak on an individual basis.  Working
> with Squeak appeals tremendously to my geek side, so I think I will be
> unable to resist working with it, no matter what else I find myself doing.
> 
> This email address will probably disappear today - I can be reached from
> now on at dmaxwell at san.rr.com
> 
> -- Duane
> 
> 
> 
> ===================================================
> Duane Maxwell              dmaxwell (at) exobox.com
> CEO/CTO                       http://www.exobox.com
> exobox, Inc.        (858)348-3040  FAX(858)348-3099
> 
> Information contained herein is my personal opinion
>        and not necessarily that of exobox.
> ===================================================