zim-wiki team mailing list archive

[Jaap Karssenberg <jaap.karssenberg@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear all,

In this mail I would like to share a project update and an update on
donations for the Zim project.

As those who are using the development snapshots will be aware, there is
quite some work lined up already for a new release. Key features will be UI
changes towards a more modern "Gnome 3" look (for better or worse - tastes
differ), the ability to edit pages in separate windows, and a fix for not
indexing text file attachments as pages (which is long overdue). In the
mean time I try to do reasonable frequent "point releases" of the main
branch to fix critical bugs. I expect at least one more point release
before I can release the features waiting in the development branch. Last
few months I had good progress, but unfortunately the Netherlands is in
lockdown again due to COVID-19 over the Christmas holiday, so the coming
weeks or longer I will be juggling family and work and expect little time
left for Zim. But I will manage to do at least critical bug fixes. As a
long term plan I now use a list of things I would want to see in a "1.0
release" for Zim. The list is available in the GitHub wiki here
<https://github.com/zim-desktop-wiki/zim-desktop-wiki/wiki/Planning>.

I've also been thinking what to do with the donations that come in. First
of all I would like to stress I really appreciate all the donations that
come in - I always experience them as a token of gratitude and a direct
message that people out there are actually using my application. They also
make me feel responsible: first of all to make sure Zim is worthy of those
donations, but secondly also in putting the money to good use. At the
moment they amount between 500 - 1000 euros per year. Since this is not
enough to hire commercial help, I myself do any work on Zim for free, and
expenses are limited to webhosting, I don't have a real good use for this
money at the moment. Therefore as of this year I will donate any donations
beyond a small buffer to the International Red Cross (via the dutch
national branch). I'm convinced they will be able to put it to good use and
are sufficiently politically neutral. I also believe this will give me
personally a better incentive to keep working on Zim, knowing it
contributes not only to good open software but also in a small way to more
pressing needs.

I hope all of you are safe out there and wish you all the best for 2021!

Kind regards,

Jaap Karssenberg