Shorewall users - May 2005 - Tom''s Legacy

Dear Tom
Thank you for the incredible personal effort you have put in over the
years. 
Shorewall is an incredible achievement.  It has helped me enormously in
setting up my new business and securing my data centre ( at a price that
I could afford!)
Contrary to your opinion, it is also one of the best documented open
source projects in existance, you are very talented at explaining
complex principles in a simple, easy to read and finely illustrated
manner.  I believe the messages received bear testament to the huge
support you have built, and the loyalty towards Shorewall in the
community.  The onus is now on us, the users, to take your legacy
forward, to organise ourselves and advance the project.  I will help in
any way I can. 
 
Please regenerate, refresh and enjoy nature.
 
Peace
 
Marshal
 
(Byron Bay, Australia)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: shorewall-users-bounces@lists.shorewall.net 
> [mailto:shorewall-users-bounces@lists.shorewall.net] On 
> Behalf Of Marshal
> Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 9:14 AM
> To: shorewall-users@lists.shorewall.net
> Subject: [Shorewall-users] Tom''s Legacy
...
> Contrary to your opinion, it is also one of the best documented open
> source projects in existance, you are very talented at explaining
> complex principles in a simple, easy to read and finely illustrated
> manner.  I believe the messages received bear testament to the huge
> support you have built, and the loyalty towards Shorewall in the
> community.
...

Yes, I heartily agree.  I was mystified at how one might characterize
Shorewall documentation and support as being below par.  Frankly, I
have seen few projects of this scope that have anywhere near the same
level of documentation - especially considering the size of the
development team...

The web-site itself, and more so when combined with search tools like
google, list archives, etc., are far superior to many, many of the
other projects that I need to refer to documentation on...  Dare I
say even projects as big as Apache?

Shorewall and its documentation made it possible for me to firewall.
I will undoutedly remember its contribution to both personal and business
systems for a very, very long time.  Were it not for Shorewall, I doubt
that I would be where I am today in the [growing] ability to protect them.

I might also note that I was shocked that _the_ developer was so active
in providing support to the extent that I observed the brief times I was
on the user list... even in the face of innumerable requests for help
that failed to provide key information.

If I had the gumption, knowledge, priorities to start a project like this,
it would be my desire to follow the model I saw with Shorewall, but, I
doubt I would have the patience to get as far as Tom did.

--- 
Kevin R. Bulgrien
Product Engineer

General Dynamics C4 Systems                   http://www.tripointglobal.com/
VertexRSI
1915 Harrison Road                                    Tel: 903-295-1480 x288
Longview, TX 75604-5438                               Fax: 903-295-1479