4 ms·

Willow Garage to Shut Down

70 points by eguizzo 14y ago

chrisbennet 14y ago
Willow Garage has been a great source/resource for OpenCV. I wish them good luck in there future endeavors.
- matthiasv 14y ago
  I don't know if Willow Garage was responsible for the early incarnations of OpenCV but that was an incredible mess suffering from high technical debt. Fortunately, the code looks a lot better nowadays.
mdda 14y ago
Love to discover the full story (what with hardware startups being in the ascendancy and all). Also did a quick check : ROS is at https://github.com/ros https://github.com/ros, OpenCV at https://github.com/itseez/opencv https://github.com/itseez/opencv (a mirror of the code at code.opencv.org). It's morbid I know, but this is one hugely positive aspect of Open Source : The code lives on...
- dljsjr 14y ago
  As mentioned in the article, these projects don't "belong" to Willow Garage anymore, anyway. OpenCV is being overseen by Itseez, and ROS is being overseen by the Open Source Robotics Foundation. More to the point, all of Willow Garage's code that they've been key contributors/supporters to (ROS, PCL, OpenCV, etc.) are all currently being used as the official software platform for the DARPA Robotics Challenge, which is only 4 months in to a potential 3 year long competition. None of these projects are going anywhere.
  - mdda 14y ago
    Understood - but it's one thing having good intentions, and another having been stewards of genuinely community-based projects. I was just doing a quick check for where the code was sitting. Willow Garage obviously contributed a lot to the whole field, and I'm glad that their legacy will remain available for all.
eksith 14y ago
That article had no real info at all! They haven't even confirmed with the company yet. The site (http://www.willowgarage.com http://www.willowgarage.com) lists nothing relevant to this and nothing's on their blog. Did someone at ieee even confirm any of this before publishing? Edit... Just read again to try and find some more and this "multiple sources" business sounds an awful lot like that X-Surface debacle. I expected more.
- chockablock 14y ago
  article claims to have confirmed with "multiple sources inside the company", just not the PR folk
- rdl 14y ago
  I have contacts within the company and they are in fact fucked/shutting down. It's up in the air how orderly it will be. (let the feeding frenzy begin -- there are some amazing people there. I wish I had the funding in the bank to hire some of them today.)
  - JabavuAdams 14y ago
    Any of them interested in space? I imagine SpaceX will be on their radar, but they should also check out the aRocket mailing list. Lots of new-space companies and lurkers there.
rdl 14y ago
This is kind of sad (a friend of mine contracts there). I was always a bit wary, since it seemed like "fun project" vs. "commercial company", but it was a fun project working on amazingly awesome stuff, using cool technology.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
tlarkworthy 14y ago
Fuck. I hope the Open robotics initiative keeps ROS alive. I frickin love that framework. I spose nobody actually bought the PR2
- dljsjr 14y ago
  ROS is under the governance of the OSRF, has been since October when the DARPA Robotics Challenge started. ROS will be fine.
  - tlarkworthy 14y ago
    yeah, makes me think they saw this coming and decided to protect ROS by spinning it out.
- ibrahima 14y ago
  Eh, I think the PR2 beta program institutions ended up buying the PR2s, although probably at a discount from the sticker price of $400k. I worked in one of the research labs that had one and we ended up buying it recently at a pretty steep discount. Also the clarifying post from WG that states that they're not going anywhere mentions that there are 50 PR2s out in the world, and there were only 11 or 12 that were given out as part of the beta program so clearly someone bought them.
trimbo 14y ago
Suitable Tech is one of the spinoffs trying to productize the work there. https://www.suitabletech.com https://www.suitabletech.com
- hinathan 14y ago
  FWIW, clicking on that link with Safari showed an unexpected popup: "WebProcess wants to sign using key "Apple ID Authentication [timestamp] in your keychain". Using some sort of client cert for SSL? I didn't find an obvious reason for the interaction.
paulfitz 14y ago
Tully Foote has posted this on Willow Garage's blog: "Willow Garage has decided to enter the world of commercial opportunities with an eye to becoming a self-sustaining company. This is an important change to our funding model." http://www.willowgarage.com/blog/2013/02/11/willow-garage-changing http://www.willowgarage.com/blog/2013/02/11/willow-garage-ch...
- younata 14y ago
  Which means that Willow Garage is NOT shutting down, they are merely changing. The article is incorrect.
- Alex3917 14y ago
  That makes more sense. They supposedly had enough funding to last through at least 2020 so it's hard to see why they would shut down. But since not bothering to actually commercialize stuff has been their biggest weakness to date, this move seems sensible.

70 points by eguizzo 14y ago

chrisbennet 14y ago

Willow Garage has been a great source/resource for OpenCV. I wish them good luck in there future endeavors.

matthiasv 14y ago
I don't know if Willow Garage was responsible for the early incarnations of OpenCV but that was an incredible mess suffering from high technical debt. Fortunately, the code looks a lot better nowadays.

mdda 14y ago

Love to discover the full story (what with hardware startups being in the ascendancy and all). Also did a quick check : ROS is at https://github.com/ros https://github.com/ros, OpenCV at https://github.com/itseez/opencv https://github.com/itseez/opencv (a mirror of the code at code.opencv.org). It's morbid I know, but this is one hugely positive aspect of Open Source : The code lives on...

dljsjr 14y ago
As mentioned in the article, these projects don't "belong" to Willow Garage anymore, anyway. OpenCV is being overseen by Itseez, and ROS is being overseen by the Open Source Robotics Foundation. More to the point, all of Willow Garage's code that they've been key contributors/supporters to (ROS, PCL, OpenCV, etc.) are all currently being used as the official software platform for the DARPA Robotics Challenge, which is only 4 months in to a potential 3 year long competition. None of these projects are going anywhere.
- mdda 14y ago
  Understood - but it's one thing having good intentions, and another having been stewards of genuinely community-based projects. I was just doing a quick check for where the code was sitting. Willow Garage obviously contributed a lot to the whole field, and I'm glad that their legacy will remain available for all.

eksith 14y ago

That article had no real info at all! They haven't even confirmed with the company yet. The site (http://www.willowgarage.com http://www.willowgarage.com) lists nothing relevant to this and nothing's on their blog. Did someone at ieee even confirm any of this before publishing? Edit... Just read again to try and find some more and this "multiple sources" business sounds an awful lot like that X-Surface debacle. I expected more.

chockablock 14y ago
article claims to have confirmed with "multiple sources inside the company", just not the PR folk
rdl 14y ago
I have contacts within the company and they are in fact fucked/shutting down. It's up in the air how orderly it will be. (let the feeding frenzy begin -- there are some amazing people there. I wish I had the funding in the bank to hire some of them today.)
- JabavuAdams 14y ago
  Any of them interested in space? I imagine SpaceX will be on their radar, but they should also check out the aRocket mailing list. Lots of new-space companies and lurkers there.

rdl 14y ago

This is kind of sad (a friend of mine contracts there). I was always a bit wary, since it seemed like "fun project" vs. "commercial company", but it was a fun project working on amazingly awesome stuff, using cool technology.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

tlarkworthy 14y ago

Fuck. I hope the Open robotics initiative keeps ROS alive. I frickin love that framework. I spose nobody actually bought the PR2

dljsjr 14y ago
ROS is under the governance of the OSRF, has been since October when the DARPA Robotics Challenge started. ROS will be fine.
- tlarkworthy 14y ago
  yeah, makes me think they saw this coming and decided to protect ROS by spinning it out.
ibrahima 14y ago
Eh, I think the PR2 beta program institutions ended up buying the PR2s, although probably at a discount from the sticker price of $400k. I worked in one of the research labs that had one and we ended up buying it recently at a pretty steep discount. Also the clarifying post from WG that states that they're not going anywhere mentions that there are 50 PR2s out in the world, and there were only 11 or 12 that were given out as part of the beta program so clearly someone bought them.

trimbo 14y ago

Suitable Tech is one of the spinoffs trying to productize the work there. https://www.suitabletech.com https://www.suitabletech.com

hinathan 14y ago
FWIW, clicking on that link with Safari showed an unexpected popup: "WebProcess wants to sign using key "Apple ID Authentication [timestamp] in your keychain". Using some sort of client cert for SSL? I didn't find an obvious reason for the interaction.

paulfitz 14y ago

Tully Foote has posted this on Willow Garage's blog: "Willow Garage has decided to enter the world of commercial opportunities with an eye to becoming a self-sustaining company. This is an important change to our funding model." http://www.willowgarage.com/blog/2013/02/11/willow-garage-changing http://www.willowgarage.com/blog/2013/02/11/willow-garage-ch...

younata 14y ago
Which means that Willow Garage is NOT shutting down, they are merely changing. The article is incorrect.
Alex3917 14y ago
That makes more sense. They supposedly had enough funding to last through at least 2020 so it's hard to see why they would shut down. But since not bothering to actually commercialize stuff has been their biggest weakness to date, this move seems sensible.