It’s precisely 10 years to the day that I registered OGRE on Sourceforge, so in some ways, today could be considered to be OGRE’s 10th birthday. From most other people’s perspective that won’t come until next year though, since I only made the first public release to CVS in May 2001, over a year later, which really kicked the whole thing off. The delay was down to me not really being able to start work in earnest until late 2000 because of a course of study I was on at the time, but I already knew in February 2000 what I wanted to do, it would just be a few months before I could start to realise it.
So OGRE, like the Queen, has two birthdays – a public and a private one 
I should start planning something for the official public 10th birthday next year, but this anniversary is an important personal one for me, since it represents my mental commitment to the project, the original kernel of the idea, so to speak.
It’s pretty mind-boggling to think it’s been this long, actually. I have more (ok, considerably more) grey in my hair than I had when I started, along with a ‘proper’ beard instead of that half-hearted goatee business – and the project has matured with me. OGRE has gone from an experimental project for personal fun, to a pretty well recognised name in open source real-time rendering with a global team, underpinning a surprising amount of production software across all sorts of sectors; games, public interactives, architecture, simulation, science, advertising, training, hardware devices, and more.
I haven’t even tried to tally up the amount of time I’ve spent on OGRE in the last 10 years, I’m sure it’s a scary number of man-years. Totally worth it though.
February 25th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Congrats! We registered OpenNMS on 30 March 2000, so you beat us by a month. (grin)
February 25th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Awesome! Congrats!
February 25th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Happy Birthday, and Congratulations on the incredible achievement it is now !
February 25th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Wow! Congrats man!
Ogre has come a really long way in a decade, and I can’t wait to see what its future holds. I raise a metaphorical pint in Ogre’s honor.
February 25th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
Congrats from me & Germany!
February 25th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
The first 10 years were awesome and Im pretty sure the next 10 will be pure awesomeness.
Congratulations from me and I hope you will throw a big party next year when the official birthday is.
February 25th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
Congratulations, Steve. (And to all the other contributors of course). OGRE is a fantastic achievement.
February 25th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Congratulations, man! I really am glad that you kicked off OGRE, it’s one of my favorite frameworks
February 25th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
Congratulations! Let me know if you’re still using your espresso machine and I’ll send you some more coffee =)
February 25th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
I think it really says something about the mindset of people like you (Steve) that, the cost of your time hasn’t factored into the statement you made. There aren’t many industries where its such an accepted thing (or a good thing) that people will work on their passion and release it to anyone interested.
February 25th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
Happy birthday! i wish you the best for the next years
February 26th, 2010 at 5:03 am
Steve, you should be extremely proud of what you’ve accomplished. When you’re old and grey, you’ll be able to look back and say this was one of the major accomplishments in your life. Which is more than most people would ever hope to achieve.
My hat is off to you, to Ogre, and to another 10 years!
February 26th, 2010 at 10:33 am
Thanks everyone for the kind words.
I’ve learned a staggering amount in the last 10 years, every effort that I’ve put in to the project has ended up being reflected back at me, magnified. I think open source is a classic example of’you get out what you put in’, and I thank everyone who has got involved this far.
As for future plans, it’s mostly ‘more of the same’, although I’m making a more active effort to delegate to others these days so that younger, more exuberant contributors aren’t constrained by the grumpy old founder so much.
February 28th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
A bit late to the party to comment, but hey.. this is something related:
http://joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000017.html
March 1st, 2010 at 10:06 am
Very apt!
March 1st, 2010 at 10:46 pm
Wow, and I thought I reached a milestone when I hit ten years in the coding industry… Ten years on the same project is daunting. Congrats on being able to stick to the same (hopefully fulfilling) project for such a long time mate!
March 5th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Happy Birthday and heartiest congratulations on one of your really big achievements in your life(and it will grow much in years to come). Really Really good and very good software effort with amazing results alongside a very satisfying Personal achievement and bringing joy to many other people.