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Travis CI Is Laying Off Senior Engineer Staff

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Re: Travis CI Is Laying Off Senior Engineer Staff

#81

Post by bd82 »

urda wrote: post #48
eeeeeeeeeeeee wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should have already been doing this, before the acquisition. It felt like Travis had been on auto-pilot for a long time. It was painfully obvious to me and our team that Circle is actually hungry and constantly innovating and wanted our business. We moved one project to Circle, waited a bit, and then moved everything away from Travis. Don't regret it one bit.

Hard to want to keep updating your working CI solution for your open source stuff while holding down a job and life and everything else. :)

I kept putting of switching from Travis to Circle-CI in one of my open source projects, But when I did get around to it the whole thing went pretty smoothly and easily and I regret not doing it earlier.

1.The builds are much faster now. 2. The configuration has virtually no hacks anymore as I'm using Circle-CI own docker images (including browsers). 3. And the UI/UX is superior as well.

Re: Travis CI Is Laying Off Senior Engineer Staff

#82

Post by maxxxxx »

treis wrote: post #52
jrochkind1 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The money men have praises Idera for their new and innovative approach to software development. Buying something that's already been developed and then not developing it further is a 'new and innovative approach to software development'?

You joke, but when have you ever heard of a software company calling their product complete, firing most of their developers, and moving to maintenance mode? Building a product and making money by selling it is somewhat of a novelty in the hypergrowth VC world of software.

I agree about calling a product complete. MS Office and Windows were probably pretty complete in the early 2000s. But instead of firing the devs it would be nice if they put them to work on something new.

Re: Travis CI Is Laying Off Senior Engineer Staff

#83

Post by johannes1234321 »

u801e wrote: post #68
opportune wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a developer this obviously sucks but this seems to be pretty efficient from a high level view. If all the low hanging fruit is done and all future development is just adding features with continually diminishing returns, it makes sense to just go into maintenance mode, extract your profits, and let your developers go work on something else

And, then, after years have passed and the hardware it's running on starts failing, developers have to scramble to update components to a version that's actually supported.

By that time the money is already made from those for who it's cheaper to stay than moving away ... so you can buy the next company with a dying product, milk their customers and move on.

Re: Travis CI Is Laying Off Senior Engineer Staff

#84

Post by xsmasher »

coldcode wrote: post #12
michaelt wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the blog about the private equity acquisition, the CTO says "With the support from our new partners, we will be able to invest in expanding and improving our core product" I wonder if he believed that, even as he wrote it?

It's complete BS, but for some reason C* people often don't understand how dumb this is, but for them it might mean a big payday so they don't care. The inherent knowledge walks out the door with the engineers, and all that is left is code and no knowledge. Hire cheap devs and before you realize it it becomes a write-off for the acquirer. Everyone wins except the people who worked hard to build it in the first place.

> all that is left is code and no knowledge

The irony is that the better the engineering staff was, the better this works out for the firing company.

If some newbies can pick up the code and quickly become productive, that's to the credit to the staff that was fired.

Re: Travis CI Is Laying Off Senior Engineer Staff

#85

Post by pas »

u801e wrote: post #68
opportune wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a developer this obviously sucks but this seems to be pretty efficient from a high level view. If all the low hanging fruit is done and all future development is just adding features with continually diminishing returns, it makes sense to just go into maintenance mode, extract your profits, and let your developers go work on something else

And, then, after years have passed and the hardware it's running on starts failing, developers have to scramble to update components to a version that's actually supported.

Maintenance. Real maintenance is cheap.

New SDK comes out, make it compile, do the necessary refactor. That's it. Minimal team, no real deadlines, just pure throughput.

Re: Travis CI Is Laying Off Senior Engineer Staff

#86

Post by hinkley »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #8
mbrumlow wrote: post #5

I called it. The money men have praises Idera for their new and innovative approach to software development. Also know has fixed cost devlopement to the lowest bider. If you want stop this type of practice please don't sign multi year contracts. That is stage two. This is where they get their value. Without the contracts they can't use it as leverage to take out huge debts -- where they get their value from. If the f…

There's a lot of problems to go around. If you're a founder, you're usually going to cash out for the right price. Everyone has their price. No one wants to grind forever. This isn't a problem if you're profitable enough that you can hold forever (Basecamp). If you're an investor, you're struggling for returns right now (to your point about interest rates and the Fed). You're going to squeeze whatever you can get you…

What do you do when the idea that made you start a new company 8 years ago, made you get up every morning, doesn't do it for you now, and all of your equity is tied up in your old idea?

I don't think I have that kind of stamina. When you cash out there's no guarantee the next person will do a better job than you did.

Re: Travis CI Is Laying Off Senior Engineer Staff

#87

Post by taurath »

jackhack wrote: post #26
maccio92 wrote: post #10

maybe they wouldn't have been laid off if they took themselves and their work more seriously? I mean honestly, looking at the team page at https://about.travis-ci.com/team/ , we have titles such as Mermaid on board, Tyranjasaurus Specs, Tortilla Builder, Sausage Dog Wrangler, Customer Avocado, Head Catwoman, and Conjurer of Avocado Patronuses

I think the childish names are artifact of the immaturity of the codebro culture overall. I realize that's not a popular opinion. Not everything has to emulate the old-fashioned, Buttoned-Down, "3-piece business suit + briefcase" IBM Circa 1972, but the silliness that passes for modern IT has gone much too far the other way, IMO. I think it's an insight into the mentality of the builders, and it doesn't speak well fo…

Maybe they're were optimizing to hire open source folks, not impress C-level/investors.

Re: Travis CI Is Laying Off Senior Engineer Staff

#88

Post by bostonvaulter2 »

myWindoonn wrote: post #47
ddevault wrote: post #21

I hope no one minds a quick plug... sourcehut has a build service with a comparible UX to Travis CI, but more powerful in some respects. https://sourcehut.org Get in touch if you want some tips on moving from Travis to builds.sr.ht. I wish I could hire some of the recently unemployed, but I just don't have the budget. If you want me to circulate your resumes in Philly, feel free to email them to me. Best of luck.

This is a bait-and-switch for most of us who are used to free Travis service, as your offering is not free.

He's not obligated to provide a free service. He's trying to run a business here.

Re: Travis CI Is Laying Off Senior Engineer Staff

#89

Post by x86_64Ubuntu »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #30
mbrumlow wrote: post #5

I called it. The money men have praises Idera for their new and innovative approach to software development. Also know has fixed cost devlopement to the lowest bider. If you want stop this type of practice please don't sign multi year contracts. That is stage two. This is where they get their value. Without the contracts they can't use it as leverage to take out huge debts -- where they get their value from. If the f…

> The money men have praises Idera for their new and innovative approach to software development. Buying something that's already been developed and then not developing it further is a 'new and innovative approach to software development'?

That's what they've done for the Aurea/Update CRM and they are trying to do it with Qlik. Sencha is a great example of where they buy a company, fire devs, and then hope and pray they can continue with the same revenue due to client inertia.

Re: Travis CI Is Laying Off Senior Engineer Staff

#90

Post by hinkley »

michaelt wrote: post #4
fortytw2 wrote: post #2

Also relevant - https://old.reddit.com/r/devops/comments/at3oyq/it_looks_lik... "Yep. We were terminated by Idera without even our managers knowing." in wake of travis being acquired last month. https://blog.travis-ci.com/2019-01-23-travis-ci-joins-idera-...

In the blog about the private equity acquisition, the CTO says "With the support from our new partners, we will be able to invest in expanding and improving our core product" I wonder if he believed that, even as he wrote it?

My cynical side and bad experiences have taught me if the new guys are saying it it might be true. If the old owner is saying it, it might as well be a lie because they can't back it up even if they think they're being honest.

When the new owners figure out what they actually want to do it's easy enough to get rid of the messenger. Either fire them or they leave in a huff.

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