This blog post contains the rants that I pruned out from my original draft for the post #13 on this thread: http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/ope...am-v3-0-a.html

The rants are listed by section:

Where I stand in all of this (aka Disclaimer of intentions)

[RANT]
I started looking into OpenFOAM in late 2008, beginning of 2009, because at the company I work at, we needed to use OpenFOAM on Microsoft's Windows OS. As a result - and a fun fact - is that my first post on the OpenFOAM forums was this one: http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/ope...tml#post206721 - post #113 in January 14th, 2009, which was 7 years and 1 month ago today.

Later that year, where I work, we found the need to use OpenFOAM in the 64-bit Windows OS and we eventually followed Richard Smith's (aka forum member gocarts) idea to commercialize our port of OpenFOAM for Windows as a paid service, i.e. people could pay for saving their time in trying to cross-compile OpenFOAM on Linux to run on Windows. Mind you, this was (and is) a service, because we also provided publicly and for free the complete and detailed instructions on how to use the modifications that we made to build the binaries (based on Richard's developments), for which you can still find traces for it from this announcement thread: http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/ope...mingw-w64.html

A couple of weeks later, according to when I made this post: http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/ope...tml#post236502 - post #2 - I decided that I wanted to make it possible to install OpenFOAM in as many machines as possible, regardless of the Operating System. But I emphasized on improving my skills in getting OpenFOAM to install on any Linux Distribution, for obvious reasons: it was its natural thriving ecosystem and it's as open and free (freedom and no money upfront) as is OpenFOAM.
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Answers to questions

• @egp in post #8: [...] [RANT]
  • We humans are a complicated bunch of people. So much that we have evolved above most other living beings on planet Earth, because we are able to communicate with (written) speech/words/phrases; and yet many misunderstandings are due to errors/flaws in those very same communication channels
  • Ask almost any marriage counsellor as to what are the most common reason for couples to break up, and one of the main ones is usually because both sides complain about the same exact flaw in the other person, but with different words/explanations.
  [/RANT]
• @michaelaye in post #9: [...] [RANT] If we look from Werner Heisenberg's perspective on Quantum Mechanics and events in time, in a very abstract perspective, then everything has a 50% chance of being dead or alive, it all depends on when you measure things. Right now, OpenFOAM technology is very much alive and kicking, so much that it's having an offspring! [/RANT]

The (really) Long Explanation

FYI: What's all this, then? is in reference to one or two Monty Python sketches (Google it ).

[RANT]
Let me start by reminding you all of this commonplace expression:
Actions speak louder than words.

In a way, one of the reasons why the appearance for OpenFOAM+ brought so much confusion, was because this action was so loud, that nobody understood a word they said.
[/RANT]


[RANT](Or perhaps the correct definition is that the official OpenFOAM development team only existed before the creation of the OpenFOAM Foundation? Sorry, too many details... let's break out of this inner iteration...)[/RANT]


[IMPORTANT_RANT]Some of the code has already been brought from the OpenFOAM-history repository to the OpenFOAM project's source code, but with it was done with a sizeable effort put into it. Some examples:

• http://www.openfoam.org/mantisbt/view.php?id=1479
• http://www.openfoam.org/mantisbt/view.php?id=1494
• http://www.openfoam.org/mantisbt/view.php?id=1930
• http://www.openfoam.org/mantisbt/view.php?id=1377

Although to be fair, I didn't ask OpenCFD for help, because I thought that they were busy with their own enterprise developments.
[/IMPORTANT_RANT]


[RANT]There is one particular detail that will stand out to the more keen eyed readers. Have you ever done those tests of "which one is not like the other?", for example:

• bear
• forest
• grass
• flowers

I'll let you think over that one for a few minutes...

I think of the ESI group as if they were a large colony spaceship or fleet that is travelling through space for several light years already and it has one simple goal to achieve: Maintain the human race alive, until the colony reaches a new safe planet to colonize.
This means that any small groups of individuals that think outside of the box, will need to keep in mind that "we are no longer back on Earth, where it was all nice and safe". Which means that one big mistake can jeopardize the whole colony and the mission they are on.

This leads me to OpenCFD Ltd, which is primarily aimed at open source software. And as part of the ESI Group, it needs the group to evolve and progress. Therefore, even though it acts out of the box (open source code), it still needs to stay in touch and in-tune with the rest of the colony. In this case: the Virtual Environment CFD. This can be a very great tool, but the issue is that it's the one thing that is not like the other in the openfoam.com website, given that (as far as I can figure out) it's closed source.

I can understand very well that the Virtual Environment is a development effort mostly sponsored by ESI's own internal efforts, therefore it's closed source, in order for the licenses to pay for its development. And I can understand that it's providing one of the major things that many new users seek for in OpenFOAM, namely: a GUI! It's essentially an interactive assistant for using OpenFOAM!

But still... it feels odd that closed source code software is being bundled up in the openfoam.com website. Hopefully this will not limit the OpenFOAM+ project and will instead boost its development as an open source project!
[/RANT]