4 ms·

Blender only became successful well after it was made open source. As a commercial project it was a failure. It only became successful due to two decades of op

by crote 3y ago

Blender only became successful well after it was made open source. As a commercial project it was a failure. It only became successful due to two decades of open-source development, and the willingness of its users to invest in it - even if only to stimulate the development of a competitor to expensive proprietary software. Blender only became an even remotely viable option in 2011, after being open-source for 9 years. Its popularity only really started in 2019 after a massive UI rework made it actually nice to use. This and related changes led to Blender receiving a $1.2M grant in 2019, leading to other companies re-evaluating it and awarding even more grants. If anything, compared to today's successes its initial proprietary development should be seen as nothing more than a historical curiosity.

grobbyy 3y ago
It's not a historical curiosity. The decisions needed to make an architecture viable on the long term happen early on and need to be sustained as code is being developed. A lot of that comes down to days structures used, system modules, abstractions, If that's done right, it's possible to make a good UX later. That's very hard in modern software processes which emphasize short term spirits.
PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
Blender received huge infusions of cash before 2019. Back in the mid 2000s, I was on the "FOSS talk circuit" in Europe talking about Ardour. Blender stuff was often happening in the room next door (way more people ... graphics ... sigh :) Blender got huge grants from both the EU and also, I think, Apple back in the mid-to-late 2000s that in retrospect look critical in boosting them out of their somewhat "stuck" development status.
- fb03 3y ago
  Thank you for writing Ardour. Lovely piece of software
neovive 3y ago
Blender has such a rich and amazing history! I used it for some hobby projects many years ago, but the UI was very complex and the learning curve was high. Recent versions have greatly simplified the UI and the features feel on par with many of the proprietary industry tools. The future definitely seems bright.
wonrax 3y ago
I still remember when I first discovered Blender. It was around the time Blender 2.8 had just been released with its new UI. At that point, some people still preferred using 2.7 because the new UI was too different for them. The first thing that blew my mind was the size of the download, which was around 50MB. I had expected to have to download much more than that, which is typical for creative, graphical applications. After using it for a while, I recognized how polished and powerful Blender is compared to other opensource projects I had used before such as GIMP. 3D is not my professional work, I use it as a hobby, and I've learned and created many 3D works that were only made possible because Blender is free. The community on YouTube and Stack Exchange is large and friendly as well. I just love Blender so much.

by crote 3y ago

grobbyy 3y ago

It's not a historical curiosity. The decisions needed to make an architecture viable on the long term happen early on and need to be sustained as code is being developed. A lot of that comes down to days structures used, system modules, abstractions, If that's done right, it's possible to make a good UX later. That's very hard in modern software processes which emphasize short term spirits.

PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago

Blender received huge infusions of cash before 2019. Back in the mid 2000s, I was on the "FOSS talk circuit" in Europe talking about Ardour. Blender stuff was often happening in the room next door (way more people ... graphics ... sigh :) Blender got huge grants from both the EU and also, I think, Apple back in the mid-to-late 2000s that in retrospect look critical in boosting them out of their somewhat "stuck" development status.

fb03 3y ago
Thank you for writing Ardour. Lovely piece of software

neovive 3y ago

Blender has such a rich and amazing history! I used it for some hobby projects many years ago, but the UI was very complex and the learning curve was high. Recent versions have greatly simplified the UI and the features feel on par with many of the proprietary industry tools. The future definitely seems bright.

wonrax 3y ago

I still remember when I first discovered Blender. It was around the time Blender 2.8 had just been released with its new UI. At that point, some people still preferred using 2.7 because the new UI was too different for them. The first thing that blew my mind was the size of the download, which was around 50MB. I had expected to have to download much more than that, which is typical for creative, graphical applications. After using it for a while, I recognized how polished and powerful Blender is compared to other opensource projects I had used before such as GIMP. 3D is not my professional work, I use it as a hobby, and I've learned and created many 3D works that were only made possible because Blender is free. The community on YouTube and Stack Exchange is large and friendly as well. I just love Blender so much.