Well, there it is.
I'm ecstatic to announce that, as of today, I’ve joined OSS Team at Netlify as a principal engineer.
Yes that's right - Netlify has enabled me to be 100% dedicated to open source software. With their backing, I can focus on upstream open source, contributing to important projects that have a real impact in the direction of the web.
Solid Foundations
First, to answer the obvious question - I'm finally able to work on SolidJS as my day job. I couldn't be more excited.
Netlify was one of the first companies to recognize Solid's potential, making financial contributions since last year. It’s fair to say that, by hiring me, they plan to continue supporting this work.
This means great things for the project. SolidJS has shown itself to have high satisfaction and unmatched performance (both in browser and on server). Now it’s time to focus on getting it into people’s hands.
What does this mean?
- SolidStart, Solid's SSR framework, will get much more focus
- Improving the development and deployment stories for all SolidJS projects
- Preparing for the future and SolidJS 2.0
Most importantly though, Netlify has given me the bandwidth to explore. After over a year of ideating, researching and writing, I can finally start building.
As amazing as this all is, it gets even better.
The Future of Jamstack
Netlify and Jamstack are practically synonymous. Netlify came on the scene championing this approach, aggressively simplifying the way we could build and deploy web applications. And by any measure this was incredibly successful. So much so that Jamstack has grown to encompass much more than its JavaScript, APIs, and Markup acronym would suggest.
"Jamstack is a feeling" - Jason Lengstorf, Feb 2022
To me it’s clear that the growth in the space isn’t limited to the Jamstack, it’s pushed the technologies forward as well. The Edge is the new CDN. Dynamic is the new static. This means new approaches and new exploration. I've been pushing the boundaries from the outside - now I'm putting myself right in the middle.
The Future of OSS
I’m lucky to have found a company so dedicated to improving the quality of the web for all, especially one that does so in the open. No proprietary frameworks, no proprietary platforms. Just a company that mirrors my own drive to help the best solutions rise to the top, regardless of where they come from. They’ve given me the latitude to see that through.
My work’s focus on open source means I get to continue collaborating closely with other projects shaping this new world. Projects like Marko, Qwik, Astro, Vite, Deno and so many more, pushing the limits of hydration, compilation, reactivity, and routing, and working with these teams to make these futures a reality.
I talk a lot about doing research and pushing boundaries. But perhaps the greatest thing about taking on a role like this is to positively impact the ecosystem of where developers are today. To help bring those benefits to existing frameworks and tools. That's what open source is all about.
It is an incredible time to be working in open source web development. I can't wait to see what we will build. Together.
Special thanks to David(@davedbase) for the banner and Theo(@t3dotgg) for helping review this post.
Latest comments (47)
great news
If pay is good then go for it.
Congratulations!
Good article, thank you.
Cool!
Congrats! and yes OSS will booooost 🚀
Congratulations, Ryan. Awesome news and well-deserved. And great news for the community, too.
I've been a fan and supporter of Solid since well before v1 and have used it in apps, though none have yet gone into production (mostly POCs -- persuading companies to abandon React is very difficult, sadly). I'd like to use it more, but what's stopping me is that I'm now focusing on Deno (and Deno Deploy) in my personal projects. I was even looking at Solid's source code last week and wondering how hard it would be to simply duplicate the parts I needed for my own app (answer: too hard).
So I hope this means that Solid will soon be fully integrated with the Deno ecosystem. That would be a real winner, I think. (Note: Deno Deploy uses Netlify Edge Functions.)
Keep up the good work. I've been reading several of your more detailed discussions of reactivity and rendering lately and getting much smarter. So thanks for that.
Nice work
FYI:
Congratulations. Well deserved
Wonderful post
Awesome congratulations!!!
Congratz! Amazing position!
Congrats Ryan, we’ll deserved.
This sounds very exciting and reading your post, I am especially interested in seeing how edge compute/deploy tools will evolve more.
Thanks for posting