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Going Full Time on Open Source

jdx.dev

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Re: Going Full Time on Open Source

#41

Post by invalidSyntax »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #9
spankalee wrote: post #6

We just started exploring Mise as a (much) simpler alternative to Nix + Bazel for a polyglot monorepo. One of my concerns was about how well maintained Mise would be given that it's mostly a single maintainer, so I think this is good news in that respect. Good luck to Jeff!

As a proponent of both Nix and Bazel, unless you need them for a specific reason you should totally use Mise. I recommend Mise to everyone. If everyone on your team gets Mise and you're starting to feel pain at the periphery then it can definitely make sense to adopt a more elaborate toolchain orchestrator.

All these positive reviews really makes me wonder. Maby I should use Mise. The creator looks like he's really in it. Starting it now might be a good option.

Re: Going Full Time on Open Source

#42

Post by senko »

jdxcode wrote: post #33
mihaitodor wrote: post #19

10th most downloaded Homebrew formula and the maintainer makes ~$600 / month. Not very encouraging for people who are thinking to follow the same path…

$600 was when I was working in a big tech job and while I had a sponsor page I didn't promote it whatsoever. I was surprised people were even willing to give that much given it was obvious I was making good money at my day job. Now that this is a full time gig for me this has more than quadrupled—this post is a couple of weeks old. Also because I'm offering perks for the first time for people that pitch in. Still not…

Do not ignore the marketing and (especially) sales part. You're going to be running a business and just the fact that your software is genuinely useful and popular will not bring in the money.

Don't shy away from pitching companies you see using your tools to pay (note it's a sales pitch: a "here's actual value you get for your spend", not "support us, it's the moral thing to do")

Thanks for working on open source and good luck with this!

Re: Going Full Time on Open Source

#45

Post by nicbou »

Thank you for mise! I started adding it to my projects, because it removes a lot of the mental overhead of moving between them. I just cd to a project and everything just works.

The documentation is a little difficult, but LLMs seem pretty capable of understanding it and generating new tasks.

Good luck with your new endeavour! I have made a similar move in 2020 and it made me a much happier person.

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