Wayne announced on the developer’s mailing list that WIT will not be funding him after October. I haven’t seen any more about it on that list, and no mention of it in this forum. Anybody got any info or rumors about what happened with WIT? Seemed like they were gung-ho at KiCon 2019, and KiCad progress has been good. Was it some external factor?
Not sure I’ve seen @stambaughw on the list since he initial move but perhaps he’d care to shed some light?
Quote from Wayne’s email:
I am not at liberty to
discuss the details as to why my employment was terminated but can say
that I had nothing to do with the decision
I doubt we will get any more info than that and speculation is pointless.
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I saw the message because I follow the list, but it was difficult to say anything. Even condolecence feels kind of pointless for some reason, even though I’m sure it was a big disappointment and a cause of grief for everyone, and people also feel sorry for Wayne personally.
On the positive side, having a paid project leader sounded almost too good to be true, and maybe it was. KiCad is now just back in the normal position where almost every successful Open Source project is. This was only the worst which could have happened, and in the end it’s not any kind of catastrophe for the project.
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It’s sad for Wayne, but at least the project has benefitted from a full time developer for a year
Actually, six months.
Thank you everyone for the support. Although I am not happy about this development, it may turn out to not be as bad as it seems. As I stated in the blog post, I’m not at liberty to discuss issues with WIT publicly. Suffice it to say, the decision was not mine. In the short term, I will continue to work full time on KiCad. I have some things I am working on that may allow me to continue working on KiCad full time or at least almost full time. As soon as I know more, I will post any announcements on the KiCad blog. There are some potentially really good things in the works so maybe everything will work out for the best for myself and KiCad. I’m working diligently to make that happen.
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