DEV Community: Hayley Kuhl

Free software isn’t open source

Hayley Kuhl — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 12:32:51 +0000

“Free stuff is great, right? But if you're not going to interact and be part of the community in a good way, then you're not really part of the open source community.” – Peter Wang, co-founder of Anaconda.

Open source is more popular than ever. It’s everywhere! From the software powering billion-dollar companies to the libraries you import without thinking. More code than ever is being released under open source licenses, and more companies are relying it, often unknowingly.

Yet, despite its widespread popularity and usage, the mindset that made open source so powerful in the first place is getting lost.

The rise of open source and the loss of its spirit

Peter has been part of the open source world since the early 90s, watching it evolve from mailing lists and hand-built communities into today’s mainstream development pipeline. But in our latest short video release, he highlights the difference between using and participating in open source.

Releasing code under an open license doesn't automatically create a community.
Using open tools doesn’t mean you're part of the ecosystem.
Filing a GitHub issue doesn't mean you’re contributing.

And when users show up with demands instead of questions, like “this is broken, when are you going to fix it?” then that’s entitlement, not open source.

The cultural clash between open source and business

Startups often open-source their tools as a way to get visibility or early adoption. And as Peter puts it:

“Sometimes it’s just a way of saying, ‘Please try our thing.’ But if people show up and want to contribute, what happens next?”

This is where the cultural mismatch shows up:
Open source is rooted in an abundance mindset: people coming together and building something great because they care.
Businesses often operate with a zero-sum mindset: focused on control, predictability, and competitive edge.

So where does that leave developers?

Peter makes a bold claim:

“Open source is more effective than capitalism.”

Because when people care, the results are often better, more stable and more innovative. But we can’t take that for granted. Peter calls on developers to ask themselves if they’re just consuming open source like it’s a free product, or are they engaging with it like a living community?

Watch all his thoughts on the subject in our new YouTube video, out now.

Want to watch more like this? We're Cult Repo, the team behind the Vue, React and GraphQL documentaries (and many more). Head over to our YouTube channel to see what else we've made!

11 Things You Didn’t Know About Kyle from WebDev Simplified

Hayley Kuhl — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 06:54:44 +0000

Kyle Cook is the creator behind WebDev Simplified, one of the most recognisable web development YouTube channels out there. If you’ve ever searched for a tutorial on React, TypeScript, or just the basics of JavaScript, chances are you’ve landed on one of his videos. But behind the smooth production and to-the-point teaching style is a person whose story might surprise you.

Here are 11 things you probably didn’t know about Kyle Cook.

1. He’s an Introvert Who Talks to Millions

Despite having millions of views, Kyle considers himself pretty introverted. Filming YouTube videos in his home office feels more like talking to himself than talking to the world.

2. He Didn’t Grow Up Coding

Unlike many developers, Kyle didn’t grow up programming. He didn’t even know what programming was until his senior year of high school.

3. A One-Week Robotics Class Changed His Life

He discovered programming during a one-week lesson in an underwater robotics course. That week inspired him to change his college major from mechanical engineering to computer engineering.

4. He Loves Playing Guitar

When he gets into something, he goes all in, and that includes guitar. He practices an hour a day and still takes weekly lessons.

5. He Loves Working From Home (Mostly)

Working from home gives Kyle the freedom to set his own schedule, but it also means distractions. Like when his wife assumes he's free because he's "just at home."

6. He’s Lived All Over the U.S.

Born in Iowa, moved to Nebraska, then Delaware, and eventually back to Nebraska for college. He’s stayed there ever since.

7. His College Had One Web Dev Class (Using 1990s Tech)

Kyle studied computer engineering in college but had only one web dev class and it used outdated tech. That’s why he turned to YouTube to teach himself the modern stack.

8. CSS Is What Made Him Fall in Love with Web Development

Of all things, it was CSS that really hooked him. The mix of logic and creativity let him transform websites with just a few changes.

9. He Thought 10K Subs = Career

His original goal was 10,000 subscribers. He figured that number would let him turn YouTube into a part-time or full-time job. Spoiler: it wasn’t enough but it was a start.

10. He’s Only Been Recognized Once in Public

Despite his reach, Kyle says he’s only been recognized in person once, and it was at an Indian restaurant in Lincoln, Nebraska. His friends were more shocked than he was.

11. One Sale Changed Everything

Selling his first course for $20 gave him the belief that he could actually turn his passion into a business. That was the moment he knew he was on to something.

Kyle’s journey reminds us that you don’t need to start young or have the perfect background to become a respected voice in tech. Sometimes all it takes is one week, one sale, or one tutorial to change your life.

Want to know more about Kyle's journey? Watch the full mini-doc on our cult.repo YouTube channel:

Want to watch more like this? We're Cult Repo, the team behind the Vue, React and GraphQL documentaries (and many more). Head over to our YouTube channel to see what else we've made!

Why Rollup Changed the Bundler Game

Hayley Kuhl — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 01:05:30 +0000

Back in 2014, JavaScript tooling looked very different. ES6 was coming, but most developers were stuck writing code with Babel and shipping it inside huge Browserify bundles. Something had to change.
And that’s where Rollup came in.

1. Bloated bundles

Browserify was great but it shipped way too much code to the user. Developer pain was real, mobile loads were slow, and web performance suffered.

That’s when Rich Harris, the creator of Rollup, decided enough was enough.

“Browserify’s output ballooned in size. I knew there had to be a better way.”

This felt like a turning point: what if ES6 modules could be used not just for syntax, but for smarter bundling?

2. ES6 modules: the building blocks

At the time, browsers didn’t fully support ES6 modules but the spec offered a real structure: imports and exports could be tracked and optimised.

The idea was simple: why not use ES6 modules to build smaller, more efficient bundles?

And so Rollup was born: a bundler built around modularity, clarity and precision.

3. A library-first philosophy

Unlike Webpack which focused on entire apps, Rollup targeted libraries: clean outputs, no extra boilerplate, just efficient logic.

It was razor-focused:

No complex plugin chains or configs
Pure ES6 import/exports
Perfect for small, shareable building blocks

That simplicity helped Vue, D3, and many other projects adopt Rollup early on.

4. Growth through gradual evolution

Rollup didn’t explode overnight but it evolved, eventually adding code splitting, improved load performance and stepped aside to let Vite use it in dev server mode.

Today, Rollup quietly powers many popular libraries and tools, influencing how modern JavaScript is shipped and consumed.

Want to know more? Watch Rich Harris tell the story here

Want to watch more like this? We're Cult Repo, the team behind the Vue, React and GraphQL documentaries (and many more). Head over to our YouTube channel to see what else we've made!