Hello,

I have recently published the JGoodies Looks and Forms
under the BSD open source license. Both are available
at no charge at Sun's JavaDesktop.org community site.
I'm convinced that JGoodies customers and the general
Java desktop community will benefit from this step.

The main motivation is, that I want to spend more time
on code and less with marketing and shipping products.

I'm glad to say that Sun is about to sponsor my Java
desktop activities. So I can better focus on code,
can open libraries, build new sample apps, write
articles and maintain the JGoodies in a high quality.

What will be changed? And what does this mean for
users and customers of the JGoodies products?:
1) I've stopped to sell the JGoodies Looks product
which is now superceded by the free JGoodies Looks.
Looks customers now get the source code too.
The support for the Looks will be moved to the
JavaDesktop.org site where we have issue tracking,
ad-free mailing lists and a public CVS repository.

2) The Looks Pro product has not been changed.
I have just cut the price a little bit. Customers will
benefit from the JavaDesktop.org features for the
Looks and the Forms. In addition I expect that less
people will purchase the Looks Pro, so I will have
more time that I can spend for development and support.
I consider to stop selling the Looks Pro, but felt
a need to provide a mid-price Swing sample app.
Even if I don't sell the product, it will be supported
and maintained at the JGoodies web site.

3) The Swing Suite has not been changed, but is
a bit cheaper now. I'm going to write about the
development roadmap for the Suite in a separate mail.
The Swing Suite is and will be a consistent set of
libraries and sample applications. In addition,
you may want to benefit from additional features
if parts of the Suite are open at JavaDesktop.org.

4) The JGoodies code and web site do not yet reflect
all changes mentioned above. I expect that this will
be finished in July.

Here are more advantages of opening the Looks and Forms:
I see the following advantages for you and me:
a) More people will use the Looks and Forms,
so likely we will get more feedback which in turn
should lead to better quality.
b) In the long run others will jump in and contribute
to the open JGoodies projects.
c) The JGoodies web site can be simplified
d) In the past I had a financial interest in holding back
information from Sun's Swing team (although my
developer heart tried to tell them a lot). I will now
try to move my corrections and extensions into Sun's
l&f implementations.
e) Since I have no longer a financial interest in selling
the Looks and Forms, I gain independence and can
better recommend these libs where appropriate.

I always tried to be an independent Java source and voice,
and the upcoming agreement with Sun won't bind me to Sun.
Actually, Sun and me have an interest in letting the JGoodies
an independent third party. For example, I'm not restricted
to write friendly about the SWT. I have found that customers
welcome the fact that I aim to be objective when it comes
to a Swing/SWT comparison. On the other hand, Sun can
be quite sure about my strategy, just because they have seen
my policy in the past.

I will keep you informed about other changes and about
articles published at JavaDesktop.org.

Do not hesitate to contact me at karsten@...
if you have any question regarding the above issues.

Best regards,
--
Karsten Lentzsch
www.JGoodies.com - Java User Interface Design