I know it might be a sensitive question, but something I have thought about:
How is the longevity of ServiceStack? Basically, I know very little about ServiceStack, other than “mythz” (Demis I think) is very active on StackOverflow and that new release of ServiceStack keep coming. But I dont know how much it relies on a single person, or perhaps two core individuals. I also dont know if ServiceStack is doing well in terms of usage and finances, as those two figures are indeed something that will affect the status of the project.
The answer to this is something to weight in when determining if and how ServiceStack can be used in, especially in commercial products.
Is there anything on this topic that ServiceStack could share with us?
ServiceStack has been bootstrapped + profitable since v4 was released at the end of 2013 (and have been more profitable every year since - and has never had any VCs or debt in its lifetime) and I’ve been working on it full-time ever since which is what’s resulted in the steady feature updates over the years:
Despite being offered several consulting gigs during that time I’ve never taken any of them, mainly because I’ve never needed to and also because it would’ve taken away development effort/focus from ServiceStack which has been my 100% focus since 2013.
Whilst we still get part time devs contributing when they can, I’ve been actively trying to outsource more work and have asked a few other talented devs that I trust and used to work with if I could hire them to implement specific features, unfortunately none of them have had the time available and the 1 person that did doesn’t want to do C# anymore.
The problem with product development is that it requires a high standard to ensure the production of high quality libraries are maintained. But a lot of what I’ve wanted to do with ServiceStack has been completed as of v5, which since it has shipped I’ve been able to devote more time to try finding talented developers and have had several interviews, unfortunately none felt like a good match. I’ve even went to NDC Oslo this year (first time I’ve been to a tech conference since starting full-time on ServiceStack in 2013) in the hopes of being able to talk to devs looking for employment, which ultimately wasn’t a good idea in hindsight as everyone I talked to already had jobs with most being sponsored by their employers to attend NDC.
I’m currently in the process of leaving the U.S. within the next couple of months, after I’ve settled I will begin resuming the search for new developers. With that said if anyone reading this thinks they’d be a good fit (and have preferably already sent in quality PR’s) please send an email with your CV/Experience to:
team@servicestack.net
Not sure what else to say, every commercial license also includes source code access (which is all hosted on GitHub) so if development halted for whatever reason customers would still have access to all source code for all published packages to be able to create enhanced/customized versions if ever need be.
One benefit that differentiates ServiceStack from other Startups is that it basically “sells itself” as no time/effort has needed to be spent trying to market/advertise (or given any talks) which frees up spending more time on product development - which is what’s enabled its ever-growing feature list and IMO is what makes ServiceStack appealing. Since I spend a lot of time answering #servicestack questions on StackOverflow I did end up buying their “sponsored tags” product so I could see ServiceStack’s logo next to ServiceStack tags - for that they threw in a couple of ad spaces which is nice.
There is a risk in all commercial applications, Service Stack is no different. You can get burned just as easily by the big companies (looking at Google and Microsoft) as well. Just the fact that the source code is available is enough really to allay those fears for me as well as the responsivity to issues. Just go check and see how long it takes an issue to get fixed here.
I’d also add that ServiceStack tries hard to preserve your existing investments where your existing ServiceStack Services supports multiple clients, formats, endpoints and hosting options. The general strategy for MS has been to continually rewrite and create new frameworks (and by extension devaluing your investments into using deprecated frameworks) whereas your same ServiceStack Services can also run on modern platforms like .NET Core from a sinlge code-base with near perfect source-code compatibility.
Initially the Caribbean, but eventually Australia (getting Citizenship’s for the rest of the family is taking a lot longer than expected).
Thanks for that answer mythz, I appreciate the input.
Currently, its a one-man project, if I understood it correctly? Have the interviews disappointed you, cause they wrote too sloppy code or…?
I hope you find some good coders to helpt you out. I personally really like all I have tried of the ServiceStack ecosystem, even though my use-cases differ a bit from the approach ServiceStack has taken.
I’m currently the primary full-time developer, I’m also still in touch and continue to get part-time dev contributions (time permitting) and someone else handles non-dev admin tasks.
I wouldn’t say disappointed, just not a good fit. C# is used in a lot of “enterprisey” environments which reflects on a lot of the Experience C# devs have and the source code they produce which is often very abstraction heavy. ServiceStack by contrast tries to focus on simplicity which is ultimately driven by clean, careful cohesive design and lean/elegant efficient implementations.
Many developers have experience using high-level frameworks but don’t really have much experience in designing them and implementing them efficiently. I’ve worked with a number of talented developers who would be suitable (and whom I have open offers with) but as you’d expect most good developers already have great roles/jobs with many running their own businesses, etc.
Not being a popular language for students to learn is detrimental to the amount of young talent .NET is able to attract but hopefully as C# starts making more inroads into different domains (courtesy of .NET Core) there will be a lot more talented developers to draw from using .NET.
Awesome! If you happen to be in the Sydney area and need a temporary workspace until you get settled, I can offer a desk with 400/400 Fibre connection and free unlimited coffee in the CBD of North Sydney
@mikesheen That’s a sweet offer thx! But we’d be heading to the West side in Perth to be close to my folks who are keen to spend more time with their grand kids.
So I have a few dozen apps on the stack for a bunch of different clients, and if you look at some of my posting history you’ll see most of them are technically unsupported (mono, old versions) but what’s funny about that is its actually WAY better supported than any analog of it dotnet or otherwise.
Mythz is doing a great job in supporting ServiceStack users online, no question about it!
But it is of course a warranted question: if Mythz quits and goes to Bahamas, or something else that will take him off the ServiceStack project, then it is a different situation altogether.
Lets hope he finds a number of talented developers to share the burden =)
