Where's the source?
The plan is to release as open source in due course. Why not now? because some of the code is not really public-ready, and it's part of a much larger suite of open source software that is not yet finished. We had a deadline to meet for this part, so we exposed parts of the API publicly that we know we can support and won't break in future releases. Those parts that are not public we are still free to change (in a compatible way of course).
Another part of our plan is to make enough money to support our Cocoa habit (and our families) in the process, if at all possible. This means compromising between being totally philanthropic while maintaining enough "trade secrets" to give us some edge in the marketplace. The gradient panel is the type of thing that will help leverage the larger suite by making standard data types available across a range of applications (assuming it is adopted - we know of some developers who are already working on this), so we do want to encourage that. In other words it's about gaining traction and support. Enlightened self interest, if you will.
That all said we are fully commited to supporting and maintaining this product as it stands - you can take our word for it. Those who know my track record (with MacZoop, et. al.) would vouch for my commitment to the developer community.
-Graham Cox, one of Gradient Panel's developers
I concur!
-Jason Jobe, the other one of Gradient Panel's
developers