Welcome x 11

https://blog.ycombinator.com/welcome-x11

by runesoerensen • 10 years ago

103 41 10 years ago

blog.ycombinator.com

davidw• 10 years ago

Darn, I thought they were setting a trend in windowing systems away from Mac...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System

dantiberian• 10 years ago

What's the purpose of the YC software team?

sandslash• 10 years ago

A lot of things! They're making some amazing software for applications and all the data that comes with it, internal tools for office hours and events, and ongoing improvements to our security and infrastructure, just to name a few things without going into too much detail. They're also there to listen to all of us complain about not having this-or-that feature :)

andrewstuart2• 10 years ago

Haha, I definitely thought this was going to be about investments in the X Window System, not 11 different people joining YC.

thegigaraptor• 10 years ago

I thought the exact same thing.

sdegutis• 10 years ago

Came here to say this. I hope the fact that I'm using my very limited noprocrast window to say this adds weight to this expression of my disappointment.

dbpokorny• 10 years ago

I'm just posting to say that I agree, and I have nothing else to add to this conversation.

ajarmst• 10 years ago

Yep. I was thinking "X11 again? Is X.Org forking?"

taude• 10 years ago

haaaa. me too.

jhardcastle• 10 years ago

Welcome * 11 instead, perhaps?

evincarofautumn• 10 years ago

Welcome × 11. There have been some developments in character sets since the 60s, not that you’d know from our programming languages.

dang• 10 years ago

We added a space to the title with a dismaying feeling that it would not be enough.

cperciva2• 10 years ago

My immediate reaction when I saw this on twitter: "YC is funding x11? But I thought it was Xorg now...".

ones_and_zeros• 10 years ago

A few Loopt and ImagineK12 alum being brought in to the tent. What's the connection?

birken• 10 years ago

Sam Altman was a co-founder and the CEO of Loopt

jobowoo• 10 years ago

YC and ImagineK12 merged (http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/10/y-combinator-absorbs-edtech...).

Geoff is/was a partner at both YC and ImagineK12.

ori_b• 10 years ago

"Well, that's a funny way to spell X11"

pcmaffey• 10 years ago

Did YC research ever find someone for the universal income study?

colmvp• 10 years ago

Matt Krisiloff?

https://www.facebook.com/events/1088219411199460/

anateus• 10 years ago

At a talk in SF this week Matt Krisiloff said they've narrowed down the around 1000 applications to about 10 at the moment.

1123581321• 10 years ago

Will someone please explain what is an associate at YC compared to traditional firms?

buechs• 10 years ago

Brad has a more traditional Associate role since he's on a finance team (Continuity). I'm responsible for the day-to-day of the founders in the current batch and keep my finger on the pulse of our alumni community (in associate-speak, on our portfolio companies). There's very little financial modeling for me (thank god) and a lot of figuring out how to 1/ scale our resources and 2/ make our growing network feel connected.

nodesocket• 10 years ago

Since Sam has taken over at the helm, the expansion of YC including adding partners and employees has been dramatic. The YC website got an overhaul, added (the macro), created YC fellowship and Y Research. It seems like Sam's vision for YC is much larger than PG's was.

While under PG, YC kept things small, specific, and focused. Don't get me wrong, I think Sam is doing an absolutely fantastic job. However there is a stark contrast in scale, speed, and vision.

cperciva2• 10 years ago

I agree that there has been a big difference, but I think you may have cause and effect backwards. I was under the impression that PG handed over the reins largely because YC was growing and he wasn't interested in running a large organization.

mathattack• 10 years ago

Yes - Sam was hired to scale it.

nhebb• 10 years ago

"Chris Clark [...] was Mayor of Mountain View.View"

Is that a typo or a file name? Hmmm, I might just add "Creator of the Universe.txt" to my resume.

ChrisArgyle• 10 years ago

Maybe its a cross product? If we assume "Welcome" is a 2x1 matrix and "11" is shorthand for [1 1]

Matetricks• 10 years ago

Congrats to all the IK12 folks! Can't wait to see more of your amazing work as part of YC.

vmorgulis• 10 years ago

I'd like to have more details about YC research and YC software.

mavsman• 10 years ago

Congrats to Tom Brady on venturing into the VC world!

bitwize• 10 years ago

I was like "Welcome X11? You mean there's someone at YC who hasn't boarded the Wayland hypetrain?"

hkmurakami• 10 years ago

I had two contrasting reactions/thoughts.

The first was that these additions seem excellent and that YC will be much more capable and robust by virtue of them.

The second was a reflection on the criticism written against VC in the press for investing in "their buddies' companies" (ex: a16z partners investing in their friends' --who are experienced entrepreneurs with big visions-- companies) and whether we will see a narrative in the future against the common practice of VC firms hiring what can be seen from the outside as "their friends".

(personally I think the practice makes sense since you've often worked with them before and know their character and abilities)

throwaway1214• 10 years ago

Confusing or misleading titles aside, YC has made literally billions of dollars off of free software and the under- or unpaid labor that produces it. They absolutely should be patronizing free software projects, perhaps not X11/X.org/Wayland, but certainly outfits like the Debian, OpenBSD, or FreeBSD foundations that make their startups possible.

Instead of laughing at ourselves for having misread a title as suggesting that YC might actually contribute something back, we should be publicly shaming them for not doing so and being an open source free-rider.

bifrost• 10 years ago

Hi, I'm Tom, one of the folks joining. I actually work a fair amount with FreeBSD and its surrounding organizations and have helped several projects get financial backing including paying for code updates. You can look forward to more updates as time goes on :)

Welcome x 11

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