6 ms·

Show HN: The Year-Long Open-Source Sabbatical

30 points by sarciszewski 12y ago

sarciszewski 12y ago
TL;DR - the developer of PDFy wants to take a year-long sabbatical to develop open source projects. Let's help him out!
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
  - adityab 12y ago
    Did you read the kickstarter page?
    - benatkin 12y ago
      It's Indiegogo, with a flexible funding campaign. Indiegogo's take is 4% if the goal isn't reached (unlikely) and 9% if the goal is reached (likely). So if you contribute to it you will be lining the pockets of Indiegogo in addition to supporting the author of PDFy.
    - sarciszewski 12y ago
      @benatkin Or you could donate bitcoins... and bypass that entire process.
  - sarciszewski 12y ago
    > Why do we have to help him? Because I have a gun pointed at your head. You don't have to, but if you like what he's doing and want to support him, please do. > He can raise millions of dollars from VCs. The thing with VCs is they aren't really turned on by "We will have no ads or any plans to ever monetize this, and its source code completely given to the public to do with it whatever they'd like, even for selfish gains."
TheOsiris 12y ago
I had no idea the Netherlands is that cheap. I might move
- joepie91_ 12y ago
  It's not that cheap, though. I just live very frugally and don't really spend money unless it's absolutely necessary, so my expenses are very low. In part, that's to be able to do stuff like this.
- tinco 12y ago
  It's only that cheap if you live like a student. I suppose it must be possible to live that cheap in almost any western country, how else would students survive on <1000$ per month income? Anyway, I think Joepie is forgetting that he will have to pay 30% income tax over that $17.000, and possibly 21% VAT also (depends on whether this would be seen as payment for service I think, he should contact an accountant).
  - adityab 12y ago
    Yes, the taxes could be problematic. @Joepie: Consider contacting organizations such as NLnet (http://nlnet.nl/ http://nlnet.nl/) for advice or support in these matters if you are in need of it. They support free software makers - the Unhosted (https://unhosted.org/ https://unhosted.org/) project comes to mind.
adityab 12y ago
I have a bunch of admiration for this guy, especially because of his attitude towards software and services as being tools that do a certain job - and not enforcers of political constraints. For example, PDFy does not require an account or registration; there is a refreshingly honest ToS page if you care to read (I suggest you do) - https://pdf.yt/tos https://pdf.yt/tos I may not agree with all of his political ideas, but it is clear that the hacker spirit - writing code that is unencumbered by copyright and patents and other essentially restrictive BS, that simply accomplishes a certain task effectively, is something worth applauding and supporting. There are few people in our 'industry' who are so ideologically motivated to write genuinely free software (many of his projects are under the WTFPL). Consider supporting him.
kadabra9 12y ago
"For about a year, I've had a paid open-source job, but this really didn't work out well - I became increasingly stressed and depressed, and I wasn't able to find enough time and energy to work on the things that I really cared about" Sorry, but that's life. I leave work and am often too tired to hit the gym, much less come home and work on my side projects, but I find a way to do it (usually) and save money little by little. It's tough. For someone with his skillset he shouldn't have trouble finding a job elsewhere. Who wouldn't like to have others pay their expenses while they take a year off to work on what they REALLY want to work on? I'd LOVE to quit my job and move to southeast asia to work on things like coding, writing, design, etc....but I'm not about to set up a kickstarter to get others to foot the bill.
- joepie91_ 12y ago
  It's really quite simple - if I'm not doing something I'm enjoying, I'm not going to churn out a good end result. That's just inherent to the creative process. My priorities lie with helping as many people as possible as much as possible, not with increasing the balance of a corporate bank account, so that result is unacceptable to me. It's very easy to shout "just get a job!", but the reality is that the moral repercussions of "just getting a job" are far bigger than asking people for voluntary(!) contributions if/when they appreciate what you're doing. My income is dependent on whether people appreciate what I do, not on whether I tick abstract checkboxes on a list of technical requirements that may very well not serve anyone. I consider that the better option of the two.
  - TheMagicHorsey 12y ago
    Not sure if its efficient for someone else to work a job they don't like, for the man, so as to fund you, so you can work a job you like, not for the man. The moral repercussions as you call them, do not disappear if you transfer the burden onto someone else. I think you should figure out how to monetize your work and support yourself. Or, if that isn't possible, work some job (not necessarily in tech) to raise enough to feed yourself as you work. But I hope your kickstarter is successful in any case. Seems to me you would use the money in a more useful way than most.
driverdan 12y ago
Why not do a single freelance project and live off the money? With the products you've built you can easily charge $100-150/h or more.
- sarciszewski 12y ago
  That would require compromising on his morals and values; I don't see him doing that any time soon.
  - kadabra9 12y ago
    And asking strangers on the internet to give him money to take the year off doesn't infringe on these "morals"?
    - sarciszewski 12y ago
      What's immoral about asking? The ball remains in other peoples' court. They are empowered to say yes/no, not coerced by economic pressure (i.e. "Pay me or go without").
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - bnejad 12y ago
    Making a living compromises his morals? I'm honestly dumbfounded. Is he never going to work(to make money) again in his life?

30 points by sarciszewski 12y ago

sarciszewski 12y ago

TL;DR - the developer of PDFy wants to take a year-long sabbatical to develop open source projects. Let's help him out!

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- adityab 12y ago
  Did you read the kickstarter page?
  - benatkin 12y ago
    It's Indiegogo, with a flexible funding campaign. Indiegogo's take is 4% if the goal isn't reached (unlikely) and 9% if the goal is reached (likely). So if you contribute to it you will be lining the pockets of Indiegogo in addition to supporting the author of PDFy.
  - sarciszewski 12y ago
    @benatkin Or you could donate bitcoins... and bypass that entire process.
- sarciszewski 12y ago
  > Why do we have to help him? Because I have a gun pointed at your head. You don't have to, but if you like what he's doing and want to support him, please do. > He can raise millions of dollars from VCs. The thing with VCs is they aren't really turned on by "We will have no ads or any plans to ever monetize this, and its source code completely given to the public to do with it whatever they'd like, even for selfish gains."

TheOsiris 12y ago

I had no idea the Netherlands is that cheap. I might move

joepie91_ 12y ago
It's not that cheap, though. I just live very frugally and don't really spend money unless it's absolutely necessary, so my expenses are very low. In part, that's to be able to do stuff like this.
tinco 12y ago
It's only that cheap if you live like a student. I suppose it must be possible to live that cheap in almost any western country, how else would students survive on <1000$ per month income? Anyway, I think Joepie is forgetting that he will have to pay 30% income tax over that $17.000, and possibly 21% VAT also (depends on whether this would be seen as payment for service I think, he should contact an accountant).
- adityab 12y ago
  Yes, the taxes could be problematic. @Joepie: Consider contacting organizations such as NLnet (http://nlnet.nl/ http://nlnet.nl/) for advice or support in these matters if you are in need of it. They support free software makers - the Unhosted (https://unhosted.org/ https://unhosted.org/) project comes to mind.

adityab 12y ago

I have a bunch of admiration for this guy, especially because of his attitude towards software and services as being tools that do a certain job - and not enforcers of political constraints. For example, PDFy does not require an account or registration; there is a refreshingly honest ToS page if you care to read (I suggest you do) - https://pdf.yt/tos https://pdf.yt/tos I may not agree with all of his political ideas, but it is clear that the hacker spirit - writing code that is unencumbered by copyright and patents and other essentially restrictive BS, that simply accomplishes a certain task effectively, is something worth applauding and supporting. There are few people in our 'industry' who are so ideologically motivated to write genuinely free software (many of his projects are under the WTFPL). Consider supporting him.

kadabra9 12y ago

"For about a year, I've had a paid open-source job, but this really didn't work out well - I became increasingly stressed and depressed, and I wasn't able to find enough time and energy to work on the things that I really cared about" Sorry, but that's life. I leave work and am often too tired to hit the gym, much less come home and work on my side projects, but I find a way to do it (usually) and save money little by little. It's tough. For someone with his skillset he shouldn't have trouble finding a job elsewhere. Who wouldn't like to have others pay their expenses while they take a year off to work on what they REALLY want to work on? I'd LOVE to quit my job and move to southeast asia to work on things like coding, writing, design, etc....but I'm not about to set up a kickstarter to get others to foot the bill.

joepie91_ 12y ago
It's really quite simple - if I'm not doing something I'm enjoying, I'm not going to churn out a good end result. That's just inherent to the creative process. My priorities lie with helping as many people as possible as much as possible, not with increasing the balance of a corporate bank account, so that result is unacceptable to me. It's very easy to shout "just get a job!", but the reality is that the moral repercussions of "just getting a job" are far bigger than asking people for voluntary(!) contributions if/when they appreciate what you're doing. My income is dependent on whether people appreciate what I do, not on whether I tick abstract checkboxes on a list of technical requirements that may very well not serve anyone. I consider that the better option of the two.
- TheMagicHorsey 12y ago
  Not sure if its efficient for someone else to work a job they don't like, for the man, so as to fund you, so you can work a job you like, not for the man. The moral repercussions as you call them, do not disappear if you transfer the burden onto someone else. I think you should figure out how to monetize your work and support yourself. Or, if that isn't possible, work some job (not necessarily in tech) to raise enough to feed yourself as you work. But I hope your kickstarter is successful in any case. Seems to me you would use the money in a more useful way than most.

driverdan 12y ago

Why not do a single freelance project and live off the money? With the products you've built you can easily charge $100-150/h or more.

sarciszewski 12y ago
That would require compromising on his morals and values; I don't see him doing that any time soon.
- kadabra9 12y ago
  And asking strangers on the internet to give him money to take the year off doesn't infringe on these "morals"?
  - sarciszewski 12y ago
    What's immoral about asking? The ball remains in other peoples' court. They are empowered to say yes/no, not coerced by economic pressure (i.e. "Pay me or go without").
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- bnejad 12y ago
  Making a living compromises his morals? I'm honestly dumbfounded. Is he never going to work(to make money) again in his life?