13 ms·

300k USD Donation Pledged by Mitchell Hashimoto

160 points by rc00 2y ago

samspenc 2y ago
JFYI for anyone who may not know, the donor is the co-founder of HashiCorp which was acquired by IBM earlier this year for $6B https://www.hashicorp.com/blog/hashicorp-joins-ibm https://www.hashicorp.com/blog/hashicorp-joins-ibm He wrote about the donation on his own blog as well https://mitchellh.com/writing/zig-donation https://mitchellh.com/writing/zig-donation
- steveBK123 2y ago
  Worth noting the merger is announced but neither (edit: regulatory) approved nor completed.
  - fuzztester 2y ago
    Yes, says Wikipedia.
- hiccuphippo 2y ago
  He is also writting a terminal emulator called ghostty with zig: https://mitchellh.com/ghostty https://mitchellh.com/ghostty
  - djbusby 2y ago
    Wish I was on the beta, devlog entries look cool. In depth and nerdy.
popularonion 2y ago
I read https://ziglang.org/learn/why_zig_rust_d_cpp/ https://ziglang.org/learn/why_zig_rust_d_cpp/ but I’m still not clear on the endgame for this language. Is the plan to kill both Rust and Go?
- rgrmrts 2y ago
  No, the plan is to build a simple general purpose language. Lots of folks already enjoy using Zig, and not every language has to be in direct competition with others.
- kristoff_it 2y ago
  We don't have VC money so the only endgame is to gift Zig to people who happen to find it an effective tool, so that they can make more software you can love.
- AndyKelley 2y ago
  Endgame: After creating a language that encourages programmers to make robust and optimal software, using a toolchain that exemplifies these ideals by providing an order of magnitude faster development iteration speed, point this energy towards the ecosystem, with a focus on our core principle of prioritizing the needs of end users. Building upon this rich ecosystem of high quality software, create and maintain free, libre, and open-source applications that outcompete proprietary versions. I want to see the next Blender, the next Postgresql, the next Linux. This is my vision. Mitchell's Ghostty project is a perfect example of this movement. At least, it will be when it is open sourced.
  - rc00 2y ago
    > I want to see the next Blender, the next Postgresql, the next Linux. This is my vision. Do you think it makes sense to augment these existing (and successful) open source projects with Zig (language and/or toolchain)? Or should something grassroots and written primarily in Zig be their eventual successor?
    - AndyKelley 2y ago
      Now that you mention it I forgot an important one! I want to see the next VLC. And in fact J-B has mentioned on IRC that he would be interested to see contributions to the project using Zig.
    - zdragnar 2y ago
mahmoudimus 2y ago
Thank you, Mitchell Hashimoto. I have always wondered why folks who made their fortunes of technology do not give back consistently. You are part of the few folks such as Jan Koum, Gabriel Weinberg and I'm sure there others who I have failed to mentioned. Thank you.
- steveBK123 2y ago
  Yeah agreed. You basically see small time donations, or boomers once they have their $50B+ pile of money pledging to give it away at death. Not a lot of big incremental giving in between by $100M-$1B class. I mean Gates is doing good work on poverty & global health for sure, but hes quite the exception. You don't see the durable institutions like new universities being setup like after the gilded age. Not sure if its a tax code thing or what. One thought I've had, living in NYC, is that there are just businesses structured to take every incremental dollar out of you whether you are worth $0/$100K/$100M/$100B now. $100M condos in 5 different cities, $1M supercars, private jets, blade chopper from Manhattan to the jet, just so many ways to part fools from their cash. For context, David Rockefeller's old NYC townhouse, which he lived in for 70 years, was for sale, post-renovation, for $50M or so. Rockefeller name synonymous with old money wealth. These days though, a $50M apartment might not even crack the top 10 sales annually in 2020s NYC. New money is also hot money by comparison.. I really do think our vintage of wealthy are that much more rapacious.
  - kibibu 2y ago
    In absolute value this is a fantastic contribution to support a very valuable project, and anybody who donates to Zig should be commended. It's one of a handful of projects that has a real chance of meaningfully pushing back against software bloat. I do find it sobering to look at relative contribution, if for no other reason than to remind myself of the scales of money some are working with, and the out sized impact of having wealth. A $300k donation from a billionaire is loosely equivalent to somebody with $100k donating $30 (and likely has even less impact on quality of life!). We wouldn't have a hacker news article about such an event. I should probably just shut up and go donate to Zig.
Sphax 2y ago
That’s great to see, I’ve been using zig on and off for the past 3 years, I really like the language so I’m happy to see it gaining even more traction
hu3 2y ago
This is also good news for https://bun.sh https://bun.sh which is written in Zig.
ww520 2y ago
This is great news. Zig is very promising. I got huge joy working with it. Good it got the recognition.

160 points by rc00 2y ago

JFYI for anyone who may not know, the donor is the co-founder of HashiCorp which was acquired by IBM earlier this year for $6B https://www.hashicorp.com/blog/hashicorp-joins-ibm https://www.hashicorp.com/blog/hashicorp-joins-ibm He wrote about the donation on his own blog as well https://mitchellh.com/writing/zig-donation https://mitchellh.com/writing/zig-donation

steveBK123 2y ago
Worth noting the merger is announced but neither (edit: regulatory) approved nor completed.
- fuzztester 2y ago
  Yes, says Wikipedia.
hiccuphippo 2y ago
He is also writting a terminal emulator called ghostty with zig: https://mitchellh.com/ghostty https://mitchellh.com/ghostty
- djbusby 2y ago
  Wish I was on the beta, devlog entries look cool. In depth and nerdy.

popularonion 2y ago

I read https://ziglang.org/learn/why_zig_rust_d_cpp/ https://ziglang.org/learn/why_zig_rust_d_cpp/ but I’m still not clear on the endgame for this language. Is the plan to kill both Rust and Go?

rgrmrts 2y ago
No, the plan is to build a simple general purpose language. Lots of folks already enjoy using Zig, and not every language has to be in direct competition with others.
kristoff_it 2y ago
We don't have VC money so the only endgame is to gift Zig to people who happen to find it an effective tool, so that they can make more software you can love.
AndyKelley 2y ago
Endgame: After creating a language that encourages programmers to make robust and optimal software, using a toolchain that exemplifies these ideals by providing an order of magnitude faster development iteration speed, point this energy towards the ecosystem, with a focus on our core principle of prioritizing the needs of end users. Building upon this rich ecosystem of high quality software, create and maintain free, libre, and open-source applications that outcompete proprietary versions. I want to see the next Blender, the next Postgresql, the next Linux. This is my vision. Mitchell's Ghostty project is a perfect example of this movement. At least, it will be when it is open sourced.
- rc00 2y ago
  > I want to see the next Blender, the next Postgresql, the next Linux. This is my vision. Do you think it makes sense to augment these existing (and successful) open source projects with Zig (language and/or toolchain)? Or should something grassroots and written primarily in Zig be their eventual successor?
  - AndyKelley 2y ago
    Now that you mention it I forgot an important one! I want to see the next VLC. And in fact J-B has mentioned on IRC that he would be interested to see contributions to the project using Zig.
  - zdragnar 2y ago

mahmoudimus 2y ago

Thank you, Mitchell Hashimoto. I have always wondered why folks who made their fortunes of technology do not give back consistently. You are part of the few folks such as Jan Koum, Gabriel Weinberg and I'm sure there others who I have failed to mentioned. Thank you.

steveBK123 2y ago
Yeah agreed. You basically see small time donations, or boomers once they have their $50B+ pile of money pledging to give it away at death. Not a lot of big incremental giving in between by $100M-$1B class. I mean Gates is doing good work on poverty & global health for sure, but hes quite the exception. You don't see the durable institutions like new universities being setup like after the gilded age. Not sure if its a tax code thing or what. One thought I've had, living in NYC, is that there are just businesses structured to take every incremental dollar out of you whether you are worth $0/$100K/$100M/$100B now. $100M condos in 5 different cities, $1M supercars, private jets, blade chopper from Manhattan to the jet, just so many ways to part fools from their cash. For context, David Rockefeller's old NYC townhouse, which he lived in for 70 years, was for sale, post-renovation, for $50M or so. Rockefeller name synonymous with old money wealth. These days though, a $50M apartment might not even crack the top 10 sales annually in 2020s NYC. New money is also hot money by comparison.. I really do think our vintage of wealthy are that much more rapacious.
- kibibu 2y ago
  In absolute value this is a fantastic contribution to support a very valuable project, and anybody who donates to Zig should be commended. It's one of a handful of projects that has a real chance of meaningfully pushing back against software bloat. I do find it sobering to look at relative contribution, if for no other reason than to remind myself of the scales of money some are working with, and the out sized impact of having wealth. A $300k donation from a billionaire is loosely equivalent to somebody with $100k donating $30 (and likely has even less impact on quality of life!). We wouldn't have a hacker news article about such an event. I should probably just shut up and go donate to Zig.

Sphax 2y ago

That’s great to see, I’ve been using zig on and off for the past 3 years, I really like the language so I’m happy to see it gaining even more traction

hu3 2y ago

This is also good news for https://bun.sh https://bun.sh which is written in Zig.

ww520 2y ago

This is great news. Zig is very promising. I got huge joy working with it. Good it got the recognition.