NaN company strategy
Blender was initially published as a gift to the worldwide computergraphics community.
The reactions at this release were so positive, NeoGeo co-owner Ton Roosendaal founded NaN
to continue maintainance and development of Blender.
NaN's primary goal is to make a free software package, and make revenues with specials such as manuals
and CDROMs. The decision to sell software Keys to active Blender users, is a necessary condition to guarantee
development towards the 1.8 release of Blender, the "Complete Blender".
For the next six months the user can expect updates each 2-3 weeks.
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API or GPL?
Included in the Complete Blender are specialized plugins and a scripting interface.
When 1.8 is out, a final decision will be made whether to publish Blender's sources or continue
development on an open (plugin) API system.
Future
NaN's goal for the 2.0 major release is to build Blender out into a realtime 3D and games authoring tool.
Without neglecting high-end rendering and modeling, I think the integration of realtime 3D will make Blender
ready for the next millennium.
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Commitment
Thanks to the enthusiastic support of Unix/Linux/FreeBSD users worldwide, Blender has become the popular tool it is now.
The current userbase is very important for NaN. That's why I make this promise:
If NaN stops or fails, the sources will be GPL-ed immediately.
Blender won't be sold to another company without guarantees it continues
developement within the current open and free strategies.
When NaN becomes a big succes, you can count on me being insane enough
to continue what I did last year: choosing what is best for Blender, looking
for exciting different ways to proceed and just having a lot of fun!
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