Just an update to give some insight into my (TD-er) situation and also a explanation about the slow development of the last few weeks.
In other words, the "open" in "open source" is also about the 'behind the scenes' openness.
In September I received word from my employer that they had to fire me (and some of my colleagues too).
Because my heart is with projects like these and there is clearly a demand for it, I decided to start my own business.
So while not my intention, it might be just the push I needed to make the jump and start a company.
This took quite some work and effort and following the process of the unemployment agency here in the Netherlands.
By starting this from within my unemployment, I do have some financial backup and thus it is not the end of the world if my new company isn't as successful as I expect/hope.
Last week, Monday January 28, my new company has officially started.
It is called
Wits'it.
The name may need some explanation I guess
"Wits" is in a lot of languages something smart, funny, understanding, practical intelligence, etc.
And "it" is "IT", but also a thing ("it")
Thus without using the word "smart", it is still about making things smart.
Another nice gimmick about the name is that the name of my girlfriend is "Witske", or "Wits" in short.
![Lach :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
In other words, my intended projects are about specific requests which resemble things we already do for ESPeasy, but not limited to ESPeasy.
Also some of the stuff I will be doing for my company can be ported or moved to ESPeasy if allowed.
As one may imagine, the start of the company took quite some time the last few weeks, but gave me a lot more time than before in the months October/November.
That's why my presence on Github/Forum was a (lot) less than intended in the last 6 - 8 weeks. On top of that there was also something personal which hit me a lot harder than expected.
The work I will be doing for my company may thus yield new features which may end up in the open source part of ESPeasy.
The other direction is also possible, where I may use ESPeasy in commercial projects, but I will always make sure to obey the license.
This means the parts which are now open source, will always remain open source and thus free.
We (Grovkillen and I) have some plans on adding some new features which are meant for 'power users' which may not end up in the open source part of the code or only after some time.
This may also be new features developed as a paid assignment for some customer, which will only end up in open source part when agreed by the customer and maybe also only after some time.
Some of these new features may be made available to Patreon users or for some fee when used in more than N active devices.
My intention with the new company is to be a lot more flexible in time to do things I love to do and also be able to work on ESPeasy a lot more structured than the last 2 years and not only in the nightly hours.
So this has become a rather lengthy reply, but hopefully may make things a bit more clear about the current situation and future plans.