Personal and professional updates — announcing Techpaladin Software

Today I’m going to talk about something a bit different. Maybe very different!

After six years at Blue Systems GmbH, I’ve had the privilege of working daily with some of the finest and most ethical engineers I’ve ever known; lots of people whose names you probably recognize, because they’re some of the biggest contributors to Plasma and KWin, and regularly appear in This Week in Plasma.

Starting earlier this month, about a dozen of Blue Systems’ current people — myself included — have moved over to a new company named Techpaladin Software that’s co-owned by me and someone else you probably know: David Edmundson!

No, this isn’t some kind of hostile takeover or internal corporate backstabbing. Rather, it’s the result of a mutual decision made between the owner of Blue Systems, myself and David Edmundson, and Blue Systems’ other personnel who are moving over.

Practically nothing changes for KDE: Techpaladin will sponsor almost all of the same people Blue Systems did, and they will continue to enjoy the same wide latitude to improve KDE software for a living with a high level of personal and professional freedom. Techpaladin will be a KDE e.V. Patron, too. Keeping this transition as smooth as possible was a major goal here!

I’m incredibly grateful to Blue Systems for the personal and professional opportunities I’ve had over the past six years. Working on KDE for a living has been one of the greatest privileges I’ve ever been blessed with — undoubtedly the most satisfying years of my career, and I have Blue Systems to thank for it.

Wait what

Yeah for real! To be honest, in the beginning of this process, I was as surprised to learn about the opportunity as you may be while reading about it right now.

Now, I’ve been a business owner before, but admittedly only at a smaller scale, running a two-person 3D printer company from 2011 through 2014. In fact, some of you who were around for the early days of 3D printing and the RepRap project might remember a company bearing the similar name of “Techpaladin Printing“. That’s right, this was my company! Back then, we helped fellow community members people build MendelMax 3D printers (you can find an archived build guide of mine linked to on that page) from our parts and kits, starting with a humble order of 250 plastic Igus bushings — which at the time could only be purchased in commercial quantities, not at retail. It was my first serious exposure to FOSS (and FOSH!) principles in action, and also where I first fell in love with the movement.

Techpaladin is a much bigger business, of course — with a headcount of over a dozen spread across 7 countries and 2 continents, more complicated accounting, and a co-owner. There are a lot of moving parts; the setup process has been challenging for sure. But I think we’re up to the task!

So this is you throwing off the mask and revealing yourself as some kind of evil techbro corporate oligarch, right? I knew it!!!

And you should buy my new cryptocoin, too!

But seriously, setting up this enterprise has refocused my conviction that while organizing a business is real work that can be done well or poorly and should not be discounted, the true value in a company is generated by the workers — and those workers should be the overwhelming beneficiaries of that value. I’m still me, and my primary goal remains to propel KDE to world domination! Techpaladin is simply a new and powerful arrow in that quiver, particularly on the topic of helping people make careers out of KDE — a topic near and dear to my heart.

On a personal level, I fully intend to continue working on KDE software in my technical and organizational capacities, in addition to my new tasks managing the business. For example, you can see I’m still publishing This Week in Plasma, still doing technical work, still reviewing other people’s merge requests, and still triaging bug reports.

I’m sure I’ll make some dumb mistakes as I find my way on this journey, and be deservedly criticized for them. When that happens, I’ll try my best to learn from them and do better in the future. So thanks in advance for bearing with me!

What’s your business model?

Like Blue Systems, Techpaladin is a software consultancy, and clients can pay for work on KDE software. And we’re inheriting Blue Systems’ contract with Valve Inc. as our first client! So Techpaladin will continue to maintain and develop large amounts of KDE software relevant to the Steam Deck.

In that case, can you fix this awful bug I’m experiencing?

Why yes, as a matter of fact! If you’d like to sponsor a bug fix — or a new feature, or custom development work of any kind — do get in touch. Techpaladin draws from the same deep well of top Plasma talent that Blue Systems did.

Are you hiring?

Not at the moment. We just got started, but if things go well, we will be open to hiring! If and when that time comes, I’ll announce it publicly.

Wow, what a weird thing to happen

Isn’t it!? The world is a weird place, and if there’s anything I feel like it’s been trying to teach me over the past five months, it’s that you can’t really predict anything. I think all you can do is be flexible in the face of events, and try to make a positive difference within the sphere of what you do have influence over, so that’s what I’m aiming for here.

Thanks as always for your time, everybody, and let’s continue to propel KDE to ever greater heights together. Today I’m feeling even more optimistic that the absurd goal of getting KDE software onto every device on the planet is actually doable!