Will S. is right - DNN is not dying. DNN CE (the actual software) is not dying. But the DNN community has definately seen better days. If the DNN community dies so does DNN CE - no matter how good or bad the actual software is.
There are several people here offering suggestions of how to solve the issues DNN faces. I would consider Chis C's post to be a very good start at fixing the issues. I think, mainly due to the fact that Vulture Capital money is now involved, that I agree with several posters who are calling for an independent DNN open source community site to be established. I think that is the ultimate solution - a solution that provides the community with just a little bit of leverage. Not that I am evil, don't appreciate the DNN team members, or anything like that. I just believe in the old saying - "Absolute power corrupts absolutely".
I believe a little leverage in the hands of the community might even be a good thing for DNN Corp. - the community might be able to keep them from stepping on their own dicks so often! (grin) And who knows, Shaun & Company might be secretly praying that such a community owned site does pop-up - such a site might actually give them some leverage of their own with the Vultures. Who knows - to make a long story short the DNN community is in bad shape - without some attention from DNN Corp. or a community lead inititive things are not looking rosey. I would be more than willing to invest some of my time into building, maintaining, and/or contributing to such as site.
With regards to the original issue of this thread here is my 2 cents. I think Peter is sitting in the drivers seat on this one since he is the only competitor to O-DL. If I were him (Disclaimer: This is based on the info I have at hand), I believe I would come out and say this "I can see that this O-DL issue is causing a lot of pain for quite a few DNN members so as far as I'm concerned (just in this instance) O-DL should continue to be offered to CE users via Snowcovered. Now Peter looks like the hero - not a bad position to be in. But behind the scenes I know that the chances of DNN Corp. actually maintaining and updating the O-DL module for CE users are extremely slim - possible but not probable. So what happens when DNN lets the O-DL module go to seed? All those users remember the "sacrifice" that BringToMind made when the community was in pain. An even better position to be in. Just my thoughts.
I am really glad that this issue/thread has gotten community members to come out and speak their minds. There has gotten to be so many elephants in the DNN room there isn't much space for members any more!!