There was a project called the Netron project a while  back, that offered a nice graphing library and several related libraries. I used to check the blog regularly, to see progress, and so on. I stopped for a year or more, but not so long ago, I ventured to do so again. I got really suprised, and went to do some checking. Check this adress, you may be surprised to:

http://netron.sourceforge.net/

Don't read on until you've checked it!

Checked it?

Were you surprised? I sure was. If you did not bother to check it, the sourceforge project page has been emptied of all contents (don't know if the source was ever hosted there though, here is someone saying that the CVS repos were removed, which would be very odd indeed). The project homepage link instantly redirects you to an ordering page for a graphing product "Go Diagram". Basically, an ordering page on sourceforge! Odd!

In summary, Netron was an open source project that did not use a well known license, but the license was a "use anyway you want" type of thing. It appears to be affiliated with this go diagram commercial venture, but there is no indication of how or why. I don't think there is anything wrong about that, per se. These things feel strange to me, though:

• The redirect from sourceforge to the order page.
• Not leaving a trace of the OS project - after you have accepted donations to the open source project. Check out the thankyou note to "Axel" at the end of this page.

It looks strange, and not pretty. If I had to call it by the looks of things, someone went commercial with the stuff and (perhaps even as insiduously as being part of some agreement?) removed all content they had control over, everywhere (sourceforge, codeproject articles, etc).

Other people have written about this, I wanted to note my own findings here. Do note this posting. There is a resurrection project for the source here, and much of the previously available documentation is hosted here. You can of course browse the archived versions of the homepage, archived codeproject article, and blog. It is strange, isn't it?

(Photo: Tony Richards, Herford)