Year Forty Seven

Home

My oldest is now in middle school. That feels like a big step. It made me realize that my two children would not be in the same school until high school when my son would be in his last year, and my daughter would be in her first year. Somehow, that fact makes his graduation feel much closer.

The other day I asked my daughter if I would still be able to call her “Little One” if/when she was taller than her mom? She decided that would probably be okay because she’d still be the youngest. Sometimes, I can’t help but marvel at how independent and capable they are now.

I guess I’m preparing for the moment when my kids are more interested in what their friends do and think than what I do or think. I hear it hits some point in their teens. That’ll be this year for my son. For now, I enjoy what remains of their “little kid’isms” and revel in my role as their enrichment teacher while they still will admit I know a few things about the world that they don’t.

So home life generally revolves around my kids and their activities. In fact, last night we just got back from this year’s soccer tournament in Phoenix with my son’s team. He continues to work hard on his quest to make his club’s “A” team. My daughter now swims on a team and does gymnastics and basketball for fun. They are both much better athletes than I ever was. They are also both good students, so there is no drama at school.

My wife is still amazing. She continues to excel at her job, and she keeps everything at home organized and running smoothly. We all have our parts to play at home, but she’s definitely at the center.

And that allows me to mostly focus on the kids and my work.

Work

We finally released WiX v4 and HeatWave last year. This was such a tremendous milestone. I know I’ve hinted at several challenges we faced over the many years of developing WiX v4. Maybe one day, I’ll write more about that time. Or maybe not. It’s a long and probably boring story.

I’ve also spent a fair bit of time reflecting on my work in open source this past year. My thoughts about what it means to be a “maintainer” have definitely evolved. That too is a longer story than I want to tell tonight. But it is very important as it has implications on how the WiX Toolset moves forward. I will share more of my thoughts about open soure maintainership soon.

I also called a wrap on “Season 1” of the Deployment Dojo live show after 54 episodes. I declared an end to Season 1 when I started picking up negative “entitlement” vibes that felt similar to my issues with open source consumers. The comments on the videos completely reduced my enthusiasm for streaming. I am planning a return to the Deployment Dojo but I will define my goals for Season 2 before getting started.

At FireGiant, there isn’t a lot I can say about the work we’re doing right now. Of course, I’m eager to share everything going on but at FireGiant we share by showing not talking. Since software always takes longer to finish than hoped, we work quietly until it is ready.

Next

First, WiX v5 will be in release candidate mode next week (if all goes well) and it will be done a couple of months after that. And WiX v3 will be out of service and archived early next year. I’m going to trim a couple decades of legacy burden from my open source work before my next birthday.

We have a couple of very cool potential projects in planning with FireGiant customers. Depending on which if any of those go forward will shape how much FireGiant announces publicly this year. Of course, we continue to onboard and support customers with the best software installation support available.

I think Deployment Dojo Season 2 will start around the time WiX v5 releases and I there are a few other video ideas I would love to try out this year. Live streaming and creating videos are fun creative outlets but can take a lot of time. Time is of limited supply.

Otherwise, I’ll be hanging with my family. It is very satisfying work with my wife to help our kids grow into strong, independent individuals.

In the meantime, keep coding. You know I am!