2017-06-15 - Version 4.0 funding discussion (Mini roadmap)

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From: Timothy White <ti***8@gmail.com>
Message Hash: ba252d22f17490004c7d25792aefd717a63e585f41ab1bc10e22eb5e629351d9
Message ID: <CAESLx0JLnoyKikPWug9gixizQ3Q_-COn=v50=G6JPxB8s6ikOQ@mail.gmail.com>
Reply To: N/A
UTC Datetime: 2017-06-15 13:50:49 UTC
Raw Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2017 06:50:49 +1000

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To the community of Grase Hotspot users,

It's been a while since I updated you on my intention and hopes for the
Grase hotspot, so I thought it time to check in and share what's been going
on.

I have been working on some changes to the Grase Hotspot, and I have a full
roadmap that I want to share with you about where we're heading and
exciting new functionality I want to include. I've started on the multiple
package repositories and moving the backend to Symfony, but there's lots
more work to be done.  I've included the road map at the end of this email.

The limiting factor for all of this at the moment is time.  I currently
work full time at my day job and come home just in time to eat with my wife
and four small children and do bedtime (which if any of you have children
know takes far more time than I'd ever thought possible before).  I would
desperately love to put some good time into expanding the functionality of
Grase hotspot and making it work really well, but I just simply don't have
the time.  I've thought about a lot of different ways to be able to work on
it AND bring money in to feed the family, but I haven't come up with
anything that doesn't commercialise it and make it less accessible than it
is now.  Then it occurred to me that it just may be possible that there are
others out there who would be willing to support this project.

What I'm interested in finding out is if there is any interest in this
community supporting me to make the Grase Hotspot to the next level.
Something like Patreon (although ideally without the 5% fees they take)
where people or businesses would commit to a monthly amount to help make
this my "day job."  If there was enough interest to cover even 1 or 2 days
work a week, then the hotspot would progress much, much faster.

I've been working on this project since I first developed the Grase hotspot
9 years ago.  I'm a big believer in open source software, so I have no
intention of closing the community out by making it closed source, or
making a paid "premium" version.  When a cloud version is developed, I
would probably sell a hosted version, simply to make it easier for people
who just want to run a small hotspot (e.g. with an OpenMesh AP), including
for families, without the work of hosting the backend.  However this would
still be the open source version.

If you think you can assist with making the Grase Hotspot my "day job," I'd
love to hear from you.
Otherwise things will continue to progress as my time permits.
I'm committed to this, and will continue to be, no matter what that looks
like.

Thanks for using the Grase Hotspot and for being a part of this community.

Tim

*Hotspot Roadmap*
As many of you are aware, the current 3.8 version doesn't run on Ubuntu
16.04, or Debian 9. There are technical difficulties with getting things to
run (in PHP) both on 14.04, 16.04 and Debian 9, not helped by some legacy
aspects of the Grase codebase (PEAR libraries anyone?).

I have a mini roadmap of where I'd like to take Grase for version 4, so I
might as well share it with you all.

   - PHP 7 (Will be required, makes for a nicer codebase)
   - RESTful API for backend (Symfony based)
   - Javascript based frontend (Angular/React, or something else)
      - Mobile friendly
   - The merging of the radius and radmin databases into one with proper
   foreign keys where possible (We are still somewhat restricted with the
   Freeradius SQL schema)
   - Latest Coova Chilli
   - Multiple package repositories, one per distribution, so we can better
   support different versions of dependencies (Freeradius 2 vs 3)
   - Support "cloud" deployments. Where the Database/Backend can be hosted
   away from the wireless access controller, coova-chilli. This would also
   allow multiple sites from one database/backend

My intention would be to bring all current functionality from 3.8 into 4,
although some  features may have to wait until 4.1.

Work has already been done on the multiple package repositories, and moving
the backend to Symfony. The database merge is also done as part of that.

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