Dan Woods has a poignant lament about the end of life for his application (and labor of love) Watson. The circumstance is unfortunate, but it would be totally understandable if he said “Oh well, I got paid by Sun. So long, suckas!”

Instead, he is trying to honor the community that sprung up around his tool and is clearly feeling the loss of an application that he’s put a tremendous amount of work into. One thing that blogs have shown me is that there’s a much deeper connection and depth of emotion from almost every developer who makes a tool that forms a community.

Watson has been an interesting, innovative, and influential tool, regardless of its future. Dan, enjoy the (hopefully bountiful) fruits of your agreement with Sun, and then you can let us know what your new project is. I’m pretty sure your fans and audience are excited to see what’s next.