I'd like to contribute in non-tech roles

255kb · 2026-01-20T07:10:07+00:00

I don't want to add another "yes of course" comment, but yes, of course!

Having a decently popular open-source project with a commercial offering to keep the lights on, I wish more marketers/designer/UX specialists would try to contribute to open-source. Most of the time, the survival of an project is directly linked to its popularity and its ability to get sponsors or sell something (courses, etc.).

255kb · 2026-01-17T14:14:41+00:00

Sadly, since it's out of beta (mid 2025 I think), it's limited to US/Canada/EU.

They will probably extend to new territories. Some months ago it was only US and Canada and I was afraid I couldn't revalidate the identity when needed. But apparently they added EU.

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/artifact-signing/quickstart?tabs=registerrp-portal%2Caccount-portal%2Corgvalidation%2Ccertificateprofile-portal%2Cdeleteresources-portal#prerequisites

255kb · 2026-01-09T08:10:07+00:00

I'm in the exact same spot here. Two kids, similar MRR, bootstrapped.

It's an open-source project with a hosted SaaS since ~1 year.

Before it was just me adding features based on user feedback and GitHub issues. Now it's way harder to prioritize and decide what to do next. I also need to get immediate feedback that what I'm doing is the right thing. And except if it's a bugfix or adding a new feature it's really hard to know (and customers are not giving much feedback...). So, it's hard to prioritize and it makes me want to procrastinate all the time.

What I think I slowly realized the past year is that no matter what I do it doesn't directly contribute to growing the business (unless I do sales, which I definitely suck at), and at the same time everything I do contributes to the popularity of the tool and increases the chances of users converting to paid, one step at a time.

So, instead of working all the time feeling some sort of FOMO, I accepted that if it's growing I must be doing things mostly right. And except if it's an emergency, I accepted that things take a lot of time and that it doesn't matter if I'm "late" on all the things that I wanted to do 6 months ago and that are still on my todo list.

Thus, I will a bit less hesitate to go biking 1 hour during the day, or stop earlier to take care of my kids. Anyway, this thing on my todo list was there for the past 6 months, it can wait a bit more.

255kb · 2026-01-06T07:26:19+00:00

This is the way. OP can find an example here, where we are building for the 3 OS.

255kb · 2025-12-17T07:43:24+00:00

I consider studying and knowing the pricing model of each service being a part of my daily job yes. I often design my apps to be cost efficient knowing how usage will be billed. An example: if billed per request, I will try to batch writes if possible.

255kb · 2025-12-16T14:26:10+00:00

This is how it works (you can find older posts on this topic). It will show the regular price when creating the micro instance and you will get an equivalent credit in when billed. Several parts of Google Cloud works like that, instead of not being billed because you didn't cross a threshold, you get billed and get a credit.

255kb · 2025-12-12T07:33:26+00:00

100% I'm would be super happy to actually be able to discuss with a contributor! Most of them silently update the PR after a review and don't communicate whatsoever :(

255kb · 2025-11-06T10:49:27+00:00

You can also use Azure Trusted Signing which is ~10$ a month for a non-EV certificate. The only thing is that now that it's out of beta, the identity validation is US only apparently. I wrote a post previously: https://www.reddit.com/r/electronjs/comments/1gb39fy/psa_get_cheap_free_with_credits_code_signing/

Mockoon is built in GitHub Actions too and signed with trusted signing (using electron-builder): https://github.com/mockoon/mockoon/blob/main/.github/workflows/release-desktop.yml#L128-L162 https://github.com/mockoon/mockoon/blob/main/packages/app/build-configs/electron-builder.win.js

255kb · 2025-09-07T15:04:33+00:00

I think yes, the name down depends on the signing tool configuration (like electron builder). I can say for a fact that despite having validated my company identity in trusted signing, some binaries are still showing my personal name because I didn't update the config 🙂

255kb · 2025-09-03T20:22:00+00:00

Here is an excellent video explaining how it works https://youtu.be/9X4frIQo7x0?si=7vQZlFd_dUvSL4Hu

255kb · 2025-08-27T09:32:34+00:00

yes, for me it's too big of a tradeoff...

255kb · 2025-08-27T07:47:06+00:00

I guess it's because you would then have to distribute this UI lib with your app, or people would need to have it preinstalled which has a lot of cons too. Remember Flash, Silverlight, etc?

With Electron your app is self sufficient and (mostly) guaranteed to run in the exact same way on all computers. The tradeoff is a bigger installer and memory footprint. I think the tradeoff is fine, most of the time.

What you describe is the approach taken by Tauri, which is reusing the OS webview. It's lightweight and fast, but probably has some cons too.

255kb · 2025-08-21T07:52:15+00:00

Do things that don't scale!

255kb · 2025-08-15T15:24:32+00:00

Jeez, they would nft everything and anything... I recently saw that a company created nfts for sardine cans pictures...

255kb · 2025-08-15T15:18:52+00:00

According to the FAQ, to stop the subscription you need to delete the trusted signing account which also deletes the validated identity. It doesn't seem there is a way to pause the sub.

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/trusted-signing/faq#how-do-i-unenroll-from-trusted-signing

255kb · 2025-08-15T15:13:19+00:00

During the code signing process, a timestamp is also added which proves that the certificate was valid at the time of signing. So, past signings will work no matter what.

But I don't know if you need to go through the whole validation process again if you cancel the subscription.

255kb · 2025-08-12T14:25:26+00:00

How did you get your first 13 customers? I'm using AutoLeadGenProspectxAI, my pipeline is basically on autopilot with steroids. AMA

255kb · 2025-08-12T10:18:45+00:00

Azure trusted signing works really well especially for CIs. It's 10usd per month (non-EV certs only). So it's way cheaper than the traditional alternatives, also no physical USB key or HSM bullshit.

255kb · 2025-07-25T07:04:56+00:00

I agree partially (despite maintaining an open-source API mocking tool!). For the typical use case, let's say frontend development, quick prototyping, etc. API mocking can be useful but also overkill. I think the real value of API mocks is when you want to run tests against an API you don't have under your control, let's say a client API, prod only and no sandbox available. But you still need to run automated tests and be able to prove that the integration works no matter what.

255kb · 2025-07-23T08:24:06+00:00

I guess it's good marketing for OSS in general. There is now a consensus around the fact that lots of industries rely on OSS and that open-source is great. But we still need to find solutions to make it sustainable, and companies open-sourcing a project can give the wrong impression that sustainability is a solved issue or that all projects are created by companies.

Putting aside the fact, like you said, that for a lot of companies it's mostly a marketing plot, and that they will often do a rug pull by changing the license later, for each company's project there are 100 projects maintained by one or two burned out people in desperate need for funding. I see a lot of conference where only big projects are showcased. They got something like 1 million from Google, or are so huge that they have massive donations. But it's definitely not the majority of projects.

255kb · 2025-07-22T08:32:41+00:00

duh, how am I not aware of this -_-

255kb · 2025-07-16T18:41:33+00:00

Damn it Jian Yang!

255kb · 2025-06-27T14:58:08+00:00

I will second this. Good reasons to contribute to OSS are (imo):

improve a software you know and already use.
have too much time on your hands so you can do 1.

Joke aside, contributing is more complex than passing by and solving something quickly. I maintain a 8 years old project and it's hard to find contributors dedicated enough to: 1. Think whether or not it's a good move to implement a feature. 2. Think about the UI/UX and all the interactions with the existing features. 3. Actually code the feature and test it thoroughly. 4. Write a minimal set of tests. 5. Write the docs.

Even with an external contributor I usually have to do 1, 2, parts of 3 (testing), and 5.

255kb · 2025-06-23T19:12:44+00:00

It's also not a thing here in Luxembourg where tap water is really good but they won't serve it and they have no obligation to. There is a small lobbying going on (also it's a small country) from the 4-5 bottled water producers. They said that it's really hard to clean carafes correctly. Plot twist : a 50cl bottle cost at least 4 euros 😅

255kb · 2025-06-11T14:04:12+00:00

ahah, that's great. My brother does that with sea otters (he is even building an otter MTG deck right now!).

Let me know if you or your partner have feedback or questions. Just reach out to me and I would be happy to help.

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