Actiontastic going Free and Open Source

This is terrific news.... after a lot of time using the command-line TODO script, I finally went back to Actiontastic. I'm excited that it's now free and open.

Speaking as a former open-source purist now converted to developing shareware, it's hard for me to see this as a win for anyone--unless a team does indeed step forward to continue development of this application.

To quote the developer: "My hope is that enough people will use the hosted service to support the development of both Actiontastic and Actionatr, but either way the idea is just to build great software with great people. If there’s no business behind it, then so be it."

Well, if you love this application so much that you are willing to develop it for free, then more power to you. But for those of us trying to develop software as part of our living, it becomes a different question: "If there's no business behind it, then why do it?"

I believe that commercial success is the best motivator to keep an application moving forward. While, in theory, it's easy for someone else to pick up an open-source project if the original developer moves on, that seldom happens. In fact, I'd speculate that the numbers of abandoned open-source projects and orphaned shareware products are pretty comparable.

I still do some open-source development, but it's entirely in the service of my commercial applications. I make these components available as part of the open-source economy because I make use of other open-source bits in my stuff: it's my way of giving back to the community that helps me. But there's certainly nothing altruistic about it.

This is great news for all the GTDers out there! I've been using Actiontastic through its numerous beta incarnations and I love this program. It's slim and straight forward yet powerful enough to keep my life organized. Far superior to any of the other GTD programs out there.

Bravo, Actiontastic, for making the decision to go the freeware route! (But I'll be the first to donate if that options is made available!)