I would totally by VLC branded swag. Coffee cup, underwear, "I supported VLC and all I got was this t-shirt"... etc... Or maybe stuff more on brand, like bluetooth ear buds or something?
Lots of good will to be had by such a giant fan-base.
EDIT: Looks like they're already thinking about that. Hope they launch before xmas!
I think one piece of wisdom I'd share about sustainable FOSS for this thread is: be happy with a smaller size. A FOSS business is probably not going to be a unicorn, but hey, that's okay, isn't it? If you're building software you and your users love, and you're putting food on your table, then you've got something to be proud of.
I know this is a stupid question, but I tried googling and it wasn't obvious... what does FTE stand for? "Full Time Equivalent?" Does that mean they are paying for 25 full time employees?
It usually means either 25 full time employees, or a number of part time and full time staff that equal the paid hours of 25 full time employees.
e.g. 50 part time employees that work half the typical working week would be 25 fte
https://www.acronymfinder.com/FTE.html
;-)
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for VLC!
In my case, we'd carried my tiBook up to the lawn on the front of the Hollyhock house in LA (Frank Lloyd Wright house), and watched Blade Runner on a blanket on the grass with the house in the background, as that glorious California sun set in the distance. My date was most impressed that we were having an outside movie date in that way ... it was pretty neat to have such freedom on a picnic date. (She wasn't as impressed when I checked my email over the Ricochet modem I had though, even though it was frickin' awesome at the time..)
Been a VLC paid subscriber for almost 20 years now, as a consequence.
That's actually really impressive, that software of such outstanding quality can be built and maintained so efficiently. It means that great things could be achieved if people bothered to fund FLOSS more, or if effective funding models (a combination of paying for ongoing support + crowdfunding for general development, most likely) became more widespread.
Opensource/free software powers most of the stuff we take for granted. The software and their maintainers are equally taken-for-granted.
However, a lot of open source projects are, frankly, extremely rude to users. Instead of some copy-paste "kindly please direct your question to this resource over here" the users get "GET THE @#%% OUT OF HERE STUPID N00b" and this is from people directly with the project (e.g., domain email address).
If you think this doesn't impact your donations and recognition, please rethink that a little bit further.
As some anecdata: My experience in various open source projects as a submitter of bugs, fixes and features has been welcomed with respect and understanding even when we don't agree or I turn out to be the ignorant one.
I have seen projects where devs are completely behind a wall, and that's fine, but I don't understand make something for people to use, free of charge, get angry at when lots of people use it and have questions about using it.
I don’t work on open source much (a few lines over 20 years), but the only patch I made was super welcoming and a dev bent over backwards to teach me how to diff and submit patches. I just assumed this was common.
This is kind of what I'm trying to address, which is the belief that the creator of the project is owed something and thus also free to be a jerk. Most users are not going to donate money, but some of us do so on occasion. I usually donate when a project is in dire straits just because I don't have a lot of cash floating around for myself, though over the decades this has added up to thousands of dollars donated.
However, when I see a project has been rude to users, or even actual experience see a project desperate for funds that was rude to me, I don't donate a thing no matter if I use it a lot. I don't believe in treating users like doormats and won't support it.
FOSS projects are just a reversal of the roles. They let the creators react more honestly. You're not a paying customer, so don't expect to be treated as if you were the developer's boss.
> VLC is like a part of culture at this point.
Pretty much, as soon as he said he worked on VLC I saw the cone in my head, and then remembered how many times I installed into people's machines so they would stop having codec issues using default software.
Thanks for working a fuckton, OP!
It's our secret goal: the cone religion! :)
That's also true, but does that sentence sound like the truth? Is truth and/or accuracy the most important trait of the sentence, or even a significant trait?
As soon as you're famous enough in a particular field, companies will hire you just for your name. Doesn't matter if you don't do much useful or only work one day a month - they'll still pay you decently to have your name associated with their brand and products.
In our short time in this world you literally helped make my and many others' lives better.
Thank you.
I know whenever something fails, "VLC will play it" – and that's the advice I give if someone asks me how to open a file that isn't mp4, etc.
Thanks for an awesome project and I am actually happy to hear that you have 25 people and what seems to be a sustainable business.
VLC is like a part of culture at this point.
Might not be much, but community respect and appreciation is something, it will definitely get you fed and beer'd.
Although ideally you'd want to have the money not the admiration. :\
Admiration is un-valuable. :D
And we have a lot of research and projects, that we never get released, and other people use the tech, rewrap it and get the $$ :)
VC funding, I hear, is more about the people than the ideas. It can also be cliquish. It might be worth asking a friend who's received such funding for some constructive criticism on your approach. If you don't have one, make one.
On a certain level that's akin to a tenured professor with a perfectly fine University career complaining he has little chance of ever being awarded the Nobel Prize.
Ambition is great, but do not let it cloud your sense of pride in your achievements. If you're not content being 90th percentile, what gives you confidence you'd be happier being 99.9th percentile?
You clearly haven’t run a small business. It’s more like being a dairy farmer where if you ever fail to make hay, every thing dies. There are good times and bad, but you are never free from the sword of Damocles.
For those who do not like the "risky" nature of it there are stable careers to choose from with monthly paychecks and health insurance.
Who ever guaranteed each and every hardworking software/tech business owner a $100 million exit event handed to them on a silver plate by a VC firm? Entitlement is not a path to happiness.
At least in France you and VideoLAN are generally one of the first replies when someone ask about libre software and opensource in general. But yeah exposure don't pay the bills, unfortunately.
What are your thoughts about software crowdfunding approaches like patreon “$1 donation per donor, per version release” and similar?
Everywhere around me, I see companies who expected to go big and profit on IPO failing. Nothing new, but I get the feeling it's getting harder to attract investors in that model (this was already a feeling I had before lockdown).
This kind of company you're building, who focus on profitability from contract work while working on the big picture between two contracts, may just be the most stable kind of company one may build, especially if you happen to have a low turn over.
We don't. Clearly not. People leaving is very rare.
But also, our recruitment is very different from normal companies. :)
Would you mind telling us more about your recruitment process? I'm not in a hiring position myself, but I guess it would be of value for a lot of people here, giving how turn over is a serious blow for everyone.
So, in general, I ask 2 main questions:
- talk to me about you, what you like and which project you worked on that you liked.
- a generic question, that can be a bit misleading, on purpose. Like "What is the difference between TCP and UDP, and is HTTP over TCP or UDP?" for webdevs or "What is the =0 in C++ classes headers? Since NULL and 0 are the same, can I use "=0" here?" for C++ devs, or "How would you improve C if you could?"
The first type of questions see if the person truly likes software development, and is not here just because "that's what cool kids do" and that removes a lot of bro-grammer.
The second is more to see the generic culture, and if the person was curious enough to look a bit at the core of the technology they are working on. Because there isn't a yes/no answer, you must discuss.
And also, I need to meet in person. No 1hr phone-call, no white-board, no multiple meetings, no complex CS question that anyone can prepare.
I have one big issue with recruitment process: when I meet people, after those 2 questions, I can know very quickly that I don't want to hire them. If we are in the first 5 minutes of the interview, how can I tell them "no" without being too rude?
Finally, the culture, and the political culture of the community must fit. And unfortunately, sometimes that shows on the resume/introduction mail. But to be honest, it's rarely been an issue, except for one intern once.
It sounds like your questions are calibrated to detect if the interviewee is passionate. I totally get that, 15 years ago, it was obvious everyone around was, but those last years I find myself wondering more and more if devs around me didn't get into coding just because "it's a good job", and it looked slightly more interesting than a career in law or commerce.
> I have one big issue with recruitment process: when I meet people, after those 2 questions, I can know very quickly that I don't want to hire with them. If we are in the first 5 minutes of the interview, how can I tell them "no" without being too rude?
Been there, I feel the pain :) I had briefly a job as a manager, and I knew it was not for me when I started to panic about how to tell people I won't hire them. Still better than to have to fire them, but damn, finding a proper way to say "you're not good enough" or any other reason is brutal.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time for sharing all of that with us.
Yes, passionate, so they will work on something cool, and are going to like it. Not passionate in the sense "I can pressure 60hours from them per week" like some SV startups do.
Please could you share a bit about what your recruitment strategies look like? And do you all work remote?
2~3 years ago, I contacted j-b on IRC and got an interview. This was the first time I used IRC to find a job :)
Well, to be honest, I'd love to extend what we're doing in VLC to other end-user applications like PDF reader, or the basic apps you have on Android and iOS.
I never said this file wont open in my system, thanks to VLC.
For a long time, I had other jobs, working at startups around video, and doing VLC at nights and weekends and holidays.
And now, I built a couple of companies around Open Source multimedia, where we do consulting, integration, custom development around software, applications development, licensing, support and so on.
Those companies are now paying around 25 FTE. It's not too bad, but not impressive either...
The employees are working most of their time on improvements of the open source software, working for clients is a minority of their time.
But I've worked a lot, and by a lot, I really mean a fuckton... And the rewards are not big.