Plain – a web framework for building products with Python

"Plain was forked inside of PullApprove — a revenue-generating SaaS with Fortune 500 customers."

So...an effort to commercialize open source?

I use Django at $DAYJOB for multiple projects and love it but definitely see its age. I would never migrate to something "slightly different" like this.

I have a different approach to "modernizing Django", which is to write a spiritual successor ORM from scratch, which is Postgres-only and be "closer to the metal" while maintaining a porcelain Python API. Sounds insane, but "just use Postgres" is real and it already has a number of killer features that aren't possible in (core) Django due to its complexity and commitment to a standard SQL abstraction.

I've some mixed feelings about this fork. On the one hand, I get the motivations, there is alway a lot of value in experimenting outside of a legacy project. But at the same time, I cant help but feel uneasy seeing something I've deeply respected and used on for years being split off in this way, "fork of Django" is a big statement.

Part of that discomfort comes from a sense that the collective effort into Django is being sidestepped rather than built upon. It feels like a "saas-fication" effort, like Ruff, Docker, Terraform, etc but instead of going from creating something new it replaces something that already works. I worry about the potential for a more commercial or narrow direction that doesn't embody honestly the open, thoughtful mission thats made Django so special.

I'm in love of boring software.

I care about Django more than I realized. Seeing this has actually pushed me with a gut emotion to want to get more involved contributing code, writing, or just participating more with Django

It's not about the tool or the language, I want to feel different about the community that is open and respectful of contribution and values long term relations.

It's not fun to be boring, but boring is good

As a python/stats focused dev, I just want a web framework that simplifies the idea -> website process.

I've been able to 'release' some simple tools into the public with plotly/django, but having to also then figure out things like gunicorn, dbms, vps hosting etc. is quite time consuming.

My biggest issue is that a lot of these frameworks seem to add complexity (under the guise of simplicity) as opposed to making things simpler. They just become more things to manage. Maybe I'm missing something and someone can point me in the right direction.

There are lots of pros on here who will find things like this trivial, but for someone like me (independent with limited professional dev training) the time investment is high as is the cost of "switching" between what seem to be mutually exclusive tasks (web dev/ops, and local analytics work).

I really wish projects would choose novel English words for their name rather than squat on commonly used ones.

Looking at you Meta, Apple, X