elementary OS is imploding

Date:
Tue, 08 Mar 2022 20:42:21 GMT

Description:
elementary founder: "I might take some time off from Linux or join another community maybe"

FULL STORY ======================================================================

elementary OS, a Linux distribution that is currently ranked as one of the
top 10 distros (according to DistroWatch.com), appears to be in the process
of completely imploding on itself.

The Short Version: The company behind elementary OS has been loosing money
for quite some time. Two co-founders are not pleased with each other and are attempting to part ways and it is getting messy.

Below is the full text, as posted to Twitter by elementary founder Daniel
For. Some portions are bolded by me for emphasis.

Okay its been a full month and this situation still isnt resolved, and it sucks for you to just be completely in the dark and its pretty obvious something is up and people are asking whats going on, so here is my side of the story

Firstly, theres kind of two forces at work here. One is that elementary received a large anonymous donation a couple years back as you may remember. Another is that sales have really struggled since COVID hit and havent really recovered

So for quite a while now elementary has been losing a significant amount of money . Weve been trying to figure out how to solve this and youve probably seen more effort around the retail store, YouTube, etc but the reality is
that our budget is too large and needs to be trimmed

When you look at the costs for a remote company with digital products like elementary, you see that the biggest costs are salaries and there isnt a significant amount of savings to be had anywhere else but by cutting pay. So at the beginning of the year, we agreed to a 5% cut

We were supposed to have a meeting at the beginning of February to look at
the budget again and probably make another cut. I had been vocal that the cut should be to owner salaries, and I have been willing to tighten my personal budget to balance the company budget

The weekend before our meeting Cassidy [ed: other elementary co-founder] called me to let me know that he had accepted a full-time position somewhere else . This took me totally off guard, and it sucked that it wasnt discussed in any way but I cant totally blame someone for not being willing to cut
their pay

So I accepted it and said okay well figure out what a transition looks like. Well make sure youre payed out for your shares. Well make sure you dont have
a gap in pay. Basically, youll be taken care of and well part ways as
friends. No hard feelings.

But Cass followed up later with an email that he didnt want to give up his shares in the company . He still wanted to be in control and make decisions. And to me, thats not okay . elementary has always been operated and
controlled by the people who are doing the work.

This lead to a lot of arguing and basically not only is there no way there could be an amicable business relationship, but theres no way there could be
a friendship here either. So I said hey we need to figure this out and go our separate ways

This Tweet was deleted by the Tweet author.

This Tweet was deleted by the Tweet author.

This Tweet was deleted by the Tweet author.

This Tweet was deleted by the Tweet author.

This Tweet was deleted by the Tweet author.

So thats where things are at right now. I have no idea whats going to happen with this company . I dont have any power to do anything without coming to some kind of agreement and its taking a long time to get there and were
losing money every day

Im saying all this just so you know whats going on and why things arent happening because I believe our community is owed some kind of explanation.

But that said, please dont harass Cass. Every story has two sides etc. Hopefully we get this figured out soon.

If I can get control of the company, Ill do my best to reshape it to be sustainable again and be more careful about the people I trust with it. Ill
do my best and I hope youll be there to help

Otherwise, I might take some time off from Linux or join another community maybe

This has been a really uncertain time for me and its been really difficult
not to talk about it. Im afraid. I dont want to lose this. But I also believe I have to stand up for myself and not just go along with something because Im being pressured to.

Clearly the company behind elementary OS is not in great shape.

but what about all those deleted tweets?

Luckily, Archive.org has them archived . It contains details of the negotiations between the company co-founders.

And I offered an even split of the companys assets. One of us keeps the company and the other gets half of the money. Which at that time was about $26,000. At about week 3 we seemed to agree that I would keep the company and Cass would take the money

So I went to get a purchase agreement put together by a lawyer to make it kosher so we could move on with peace of mind etc. But a few days later I get an email from Cassidys lawyer that he wants $30k now, $70k over the next 10 years, and to keep 5% share

And I said hey this isnt what we agreed to. We agreed to half. Im trying to get this put together now. But she insists Cass didnt agree to anything and also that he should profit from any future sale of the company etc.

So if you saw my tweet the other day about feeling betrayed, well thats what thats about. Because wow I cant believe this situation that Im in. And so I told his lawyer hey no Im not gonna do that. Thats not fair

And I also said, if he thinks theres $100k plus of value for his shares etc, then please honor the original agreement and pay me the $26k and I will go on my way because to me thats whats fair. Im not going to be taken advantage of and saddled with this huge debt

What does the other co-founder of elementary have to say? This:

My thoughts on all of this:

Running small companies with friends can be challenging. Even in the best of circumstances. Seen this sort of thing happen many times throughout the tech industry. Its sad to see, but not all that uncommon.

The stance of Cassidy Blaede seems reasonable. Certainly at least legal. He has shares, those are his. It is clear that Daniel For does not want Cassidy Blaede to have those shares. Lots of bad feelings (at least on the part of Daniel For).

Seeing this happen is unfortunate for the elementary OS users out there. Likewise, it is always sad to see Linux and open source companies fail. For whatever reasons. I hope they can right their ship and keep things sailing but I dont view a positive outcome as likely.

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Link to news story:
https://lunduke.substack.com/p/elementary-os-is-imploding


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