jdlcdl on Nostr: FOSS is very difficult when it comes to making ends meet. I've been a "user" of FOSS ...
FOSS is very difficult when it comes to making ends meet. I've been a "user" of FOSS since the mid 90s, and used it exclusively in my professional life since the early 2000s — just to avoid myself and clients becoming prisoners of a particular platform. Until recently — and for ideological reasons, certainly not for financial ones, my only contributions were relatively meager donations to particular projects behind the tools I needed professionally.
But lately with OpenSats, HRF and others, empowered by appreciative folks who donate like heroes to make freedom possible, there is finally hope that FOSS might be something that can help pay the bills and not just be a "loss-leader" effort of passion for contributors.
Speaking for myself, I wish we could pile-on tremendous support (written, meme-etic, financial, screaming-from-the-rooftops, etc) behind contributors who apply for grants so that they can focus on a particular project. Whether developing specific new features, keeping "working" code working, or reviewing and curating others' contributions, it is required that developer minds are not wandering between the projects they love and how they'll keep a roof over their loved-ones' heads with food on the table.
Keith, if you think that my written support might help, I'd stop what I'm doing to express support for you to decision makers. If they're already reading this here, then I'll say that I know Keith as a key player whose focus on seedsigner results in real-world value that many (even ones we'll never know about) benefit from seasonally as they revisit their self-custody setups. His focus also results in magnifying the efforts of new contributors who may lack the scarce historic perspective that Keith, SeedSigner and Nick have gained over the lifetime of the project; I can say that from first-hand experience.
Thank you Keith for arriving here and doing what you've already done, for pressing to find a sustainable long-term financial reason to continue being here, and for staying here anyways even when it's difficult to find that reason.
And thank you to all of the other heroes keeping solutions for freedom moving forward. In my gut it feels inevitable, but in our lifetimes — sooner than later, is what keeps me going and checks the "purpose" box.
Lean on that needle! ...a little harder now ...I think it's budging... Onward!!!
But lately with OpenSats, HRF and others, empowered by appreciative folks who donate like heroes to make freedom possible, there is finally hope that FOSS might be something that can help pay the bills and not just be a "loss-leader" effort of passion for contributors.
Speaking for myself, I wish we could pile-on tremendous support (written, meme-etic, financial, screaming-from-the-rooftops, etc) behind contributors who apply for grants so that they can focus on a particular project. Whether developing specific new features, keeping "working" code working, or reviewing and curating others' contributions, it is required that developer minds are not wandering between the projects they love and how they'll keep a roof over their loved-ones' heads with food on the table.
Keith, if you think that my written support might help, I'd stop what I'm doing to express support for you to decision makers. If they're already reading this here, then I'll say that I know Keith as a key player whose focus on seedsigner results in real-world value that many (even ones we'll never know about) benefit from seasonally as they revisit their self-custody setups. His focus also results in magnifying the efforts of new contributors who may lack the scarce historic perspective that Keith, SeedSigner and Nick have gained over the lifetime of the project; I can say that from first-hand experience.
Thank you Keith for arriving here and doing what you've already done, for pressing to find a sustainable long-term financial reason to continue being here, and for staying here anyways even when it's difficult to find that reason.
And thank you to all of the other heroes keeping solutions for freedom moving forward. In my gut it feels inevitable, but in our lifetimes — sooner than later, is what keeps me going and checks the "purpose" box.
Lean on that needle! ...a little harder now ...I think it's budging... Onward!!!