Hi everyone!
Talking about numbers, economics, and donations is never easy, but today we feel the need to do so with maximum transparency. Bottles has surpassed three million installations on Flathub alone. Yet, the average donations we receive are around 100 euros per month.
A sum that doesn’t even cover server costs or the resources we use. Behind the scenes, there are fantastic companies like Hyperbit, Linode, JetBrains, and others that support us, and it’s only thanks to them that everything continues to function. Without these valuable collaborations, it would already be very difficult to guarantee the project’s technical continuity. Unfortunately, however, it’s not enough.
The reality is that I, Mirko, can no longer dedicate as much time to Bottles as I’d like. I have a family, a new home, a company to run, and strategic projects like Vanilla OS that require an enormous amount of time and have a direct impact on the future of the company itself. My time, like everyone’s, is limited. And every hour I dedicate to Bottles is an hour I take away elsewhere, from something that could guarantee me a concrete return, or that simply concerns my private life, my serenity, my family.
However, I want to clarify one important thing: Bottles Next is definitely not dead! It’s moving forward, perhaps slowly, but with great care. I myself am still working on the prototyping, even if I have little time available. Alongside me, there are other people on the team who are making valuable contributions to the project. We are pursuing the ideas and objectives we set, trying not to lose sight of the initial vision. Unfortunately, the pace is slow because the time we can dedicate to it is minimal, and it’s not right to pretend things are otherwise.
I also want to emphasize how much I appreciate the incredible work of TheEvilSkeleton: he took over the project with great determination, leading the team in an attempt to modernize the backend, make the code more scalable, more readable, less chaotic. It’s a work of enormous value, and I am sincerely proud of him and what he has achieved. But the truth is that the underlying problem remains: Bottles’ current structure has had its day. It’s full of patches, temporary solutions, workarounds, and architectural limitations that today prevent us from making a qualitative leap.
We saw this clearly with UMU, one of the most requested features. We can’t implement it as we’d like, because the current code doesn’t allow it. We could do it in a “dirty” way, of course, just to “have it.” But does it really make sense? Does it make sense to invest time, energy, and effort into a structure that we already know is unsuitable? Or perhaps it would be better to concentrate those efforts on the new base, on Next, which was designed precisely to solve these limitations at the root?
Next is the future of Bottles. We’re talking about a backend rewritten from scratch, with a clear and modern vision. We’re talking about new reusable libraries, designed to be modular and flexible. We’re talking about a modern communication protocol between backend and frontend, more solid and easier to extend. But all of this needs one fundamental thing: time. And time, today, needs to be funded.
I am actively working to find sponsorships, I am in contact with a possible funding that could allow us to accelerate development, to pay a small bonus to those working on Next, to give some breathing room to those who are contributing. But here too, it takes time. And that’s precisely why today I feel the need to speak openly.
We don’t want to make Wikipedia-style appeals, with the usual “just one euro each.” But it’s right that those who love Bottles know how things really are. If you want to see Next grow, if you want to see Bottles finally become what it’s meant to be, we invite you to consider supporting us. Even just a symbolic donation, even just a monthly subscription, if done by many, can become what we need to take the next step.
Crazy figures are not needed. Just a few euros a month, really. If even a small percentage of active users made a donation, we could complete Bottles Next in a reasonable time, without sacrificing quality or our personal lives.
Thanks to those who have supported us for a long time. Thanks to those who believe in this project, even with just a kind word. And thanks, especially, to those who choose to be part of this new phase. Bottles still has a lot to say. And together, we can make it speak loudly!
How to Support or Contribute
If you’d like to support Bottles or contribute to its development, here are some helpful links:
- Donations: https://usebottles.com/funding/
- Follow Bottles Next development: https://github.com/bottlesdevs/bottles-next
- Contribute to Bottles:
Every little bit helps. Thanks for being part of the journey.
— Mirko
