The future of Windmill

The last update on Windmill was really the news about Windmill on the iPhone getting rejected. I have yet to put any more work on Windmill.

Windmill on the Mac is a standalone, native, macOS app1 that has always been free to download and use. Developers don’t even need to have an account. I genuinely don’t know how many developers do actually use2 it. I never actively tracked downloads, users, monitored engagement or any other usage metrics. It has been a deliberate decision not to.

Windmill on the iPhone on the other hand, requires significant infrastructure and a backend server. I have been using AWS for that. Even though Windmill on the iPhone never saw the light of day in public, the infrastructure did cost money to operate during setup, development, testing, beta. It still does to this day since I never dismantled it.

Up until now, I have been paying for AWS using credits that Amazon used to offer to startups. The credits have now been depleted3 so starting in October, I will have to foot the bill4. A couple of days ago I also got a reminder that the Windmill domain will expire soon.

I never made any money on Windmill while working on it full time. Also, I haven’t had a salary since summer 2017. Any savings I had, run out about 12 months ago. Still, it feels hard to bring down the whole thing just like that. I still haven’t come to terms with the rejection by Apple and haven’t had the head space to decide what to do with Windmill.

I still believe in both the Windmill vision and the product. I just don’t have the money and resources to dedicate on time that has now become borrowed.

The future of Windmill is uncertain.

  1. Interesting fact: The codebase is 16k LOC. ↩︎

  2. If you do, please let me know via email at markos@qnoid.com ↩︎

  3. Do you know if there is a way to get extra AWS credits? ↩︎

  4. A good friend and for what is worth a prominent member in the Apple community, was kind enough and generous to offer to “sponsor” the cost of AWS. I don’t feel comfortable accepting money while the future of Windmill isn’t any clearer. ↩︎

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This is a personal website, at the outskirts of the web, away from social media and publishing platforms. This website surfaces social, racial, economic traits and explores human relationships. It highlights the conditions that contribute to one's personal success or downfall. It shares stories that act as a reminder that life is messy, complex, nuanced, diverse. It aims to bring the world closer together. It reaches out to those that feel lost, lonely, inadequate and outcasts. I am with you.

for historic purposes, 20th to 21st century