Urgent help for OpenPrinting needed!
As many here know, I am co-founder and lead of OpenPrinting since 2001, known as the print guru for Linux and free software by many. I also got one of the 8 fellows of the Linux Foundation for this.
Up to now I was working at Canonical, hired back in 2006 just to run OpenPrinting and also to maintain printing-related Ubuntu packages.
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Please boost.
#OpenPrinting #LinuxFoundation #getfedihired
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With the time, Canonical has grown and created internal structures as a big-tech, especially how employees are evaluated. With my mostly external work I got a victim of it and they laid me off. All my colleagues do not really understand why I got fired, as they consider my work really important. Got ~30 "I am really sad that you have to go, you do not deserve it, you are doing great work" answers to my good-bye e-mail
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@lerxst @till creeped me out when execs headhunted me at a trade show, then when I expressed interest immediately just told me to wander into the cattle chutes online, apply for literally anything, "it doesn't matter, we'll figure out your position later."
That smelled like VERY old fish to me, and I dropped it there. Found out about the weird Shuttleworth interview stuff later, and just kinda went "yeah, that fits, glad I didn't waste any more time or energy than I did."
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and more than 30 Canonicalers have connected with me on LinkedIn.
Now I want to continue doing OpenPrinting for a living, and need a way to do so. I am currently working with the Linux Foundation to make OpenPrinting an organiation which can receive sponsor funding. So now I am looking for sponsors.
Even greater would be, if independent of this somebody could hire me to continue OpenPrinting ...
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OpenPrinting is an essential piece of the free software system infrastructure and it needs to be kept in its good shape in which it is currently, many people appreciating my work and sometimes even telling that for them printing works better than under Windows or macOS.
Any help is appreciated, including just boosting this thread.
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Thanks a lot to everybody who has boosted the initial post of this thread! I got 1082 boosts within somewhat more than one week!
And still any help is welcome and please continue boosting (the initial post)!
Thanks a lot to everybody who has boosted my initial post of this thread!
I have amazing news now:
The Sovereign Tech Agency @sovtechfund is investing in OpenPrinting!
See
Amazing News! The Sovereign Tech Agency @sovtechfund@mastodon.social is investing in OpenPrinting! My full-time work at OpenPrinting will get funded until the end of 2026, by the Sovereign Tech Fund! Because printing is an essential part of the IT infrastructure. So printing will continue to just work! See details here: https://openprinting.github.io/OpenPrinting-News-Sovereign-Tech-Agency-is-investing-in-OpenPrinting/ Thanks a lot to @tarakiyee@mastodon.online and @hzulla@infosec.exchange ! #OpenPrinting
@till thanks to your hard work, my printers always worked better than they ever did on windows even as far back as from the Mandrake Linux days.
Full disclosure: I even stole ( shamelessly ) from your src.rpm to create the hplip rpm for Conectiva Linux 10 ( back in 2004 ) 😉
Edit: I did credited you on the comments on my .spec file though 😉
@gnemmi And MandrakeSoft rectified it by merging with Conectiva ...
And these packages (including the packaging) are free software anyway ... For me it is a sign that I did a great HPLIP package ...
@till yup. Conectiva 10 was the last Conectiva release before Mandrake bought it. Hplip didn't make the cut in the final release so I had to create an rpm as an external contrib.
And, yes, your hplip rpm package was: impeccable!!.
Thank you for all your hard work over the last 3 decades!
* Mon Jun 06 2005 Gonzalo Raúl Nemmi <caleb@linuxdicas.com.br> - added add/remove hpaio backend to the sane.d/dll.conf file (Thanks goes to Till Kampeter and his Mandriva hplip.spec)
Thank you for your work. As someone that has built their own career, I know it's hard. But I hope you end up setting up your own business instead of being a worker beholden to suites that don't know what they have.
It's easier if you identify who your primary users are. For me, it's artists, but I suspect for you it's distro makers, and they should *all* be contributing back funding into your open print business. Even the free ones.
A picture showing most modern digital products and services Current digital infrastructure is to a large degree built on layers and layers of Open Source. Open Source is to a large degree built and maintained by enthusiasts or other financially and resource restrained teams. It should be in our mutual interest to make sure that … Continue reading EU-STF for funding critical Open Source →
@till Oh, man 😭
That reminds me why to never again apply to Canonical.
@till At Europe OpenSourceSummit 2024 in Wien Till Kamppeter had a talk. It's a complete overview of the project with the history since 2001 until now, the archivements, problems, ongoing and future work, and the community around the printing. He does very important work for printing in Open Source (and other) environments.
@till is a great person to work with and goes out of their way to bring tech mentorship around the world. Every year Till hosts events and participates in mentorship programs that empower people to work in FOSS.
I dearly hope that @till and OpenPrinting receive support ❤️
Thank you (and Michael) for making printing on Linux just work.
What happened to @till in part shows why billionaires' whims shouldn't control software…
https://ubuntu.social/@till/114932477260801209
Mark Shuttleworth once shouted that “Software Freedom Conservancy is just like Microsoft” & publicly stated I was a “McCarthyist” for enforcing #GPL. Like most billionaires, he says & does whatever he wants & faces no consequences.
You are far from the only employee he has mistreated & most go on to do their greatest work after leaving Shuttleworth's company. I'm sure you will too.
Urgent help for OpenPrinting needed! As many here know, I am co-founder and lead of OpenPrinting since 2001, known as the print guru for Linux and free software by many. I also got one of the 8 fellows of the Linux Foundation for this. Up to now I was working at Canonical, hired back in 2006 just to run OpenPrinting and also to maintain printing-related Ubuntu packages. ... 🧵 Please boost. #OpenPrinting #LinuxFoundation
@till Hadn't known this was something you did, must be hard work to do! Then again, a lot of open source projects are.
;)
@communiteatime @Jill_linuxgirl Thanks a lot for offering your help, you were always an amazing friend! It was great to work with you in the extended community team of Canonical/Ubuntu.
First of all, do not forget to actually boost.
Second, #Firefox and #Thunderbird are apps out of which many people are printing, so what about #Mozilla as a sponsor for OpenPrinting?
Or perhaps me as printing guru @mozilla, doing OpenPrinting plus their printing part?
@agateau Thanks for the hint, but the Linux Foundation does not sponsor directly. I am working together with them to get help for getting directly sponsored and also to turn OpenPrinting into a legal organization, so that we can receive sponsoring.
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