I think you underestimate the work it takes to maintain and more importantly grow such a large open source project. If wp engine can barely contribute today, what are the chances they want to take on the whole thing. Nope they just want to get rich off open source. That's understandable , they are a for profit after all. But at what point does it make sense to give back in terms of either money or time to make improvements to the ecosystem that you depend on.
I agree with Matt's ideals but not the actions. The reality is theres not a whole lot he can do without looking like spoilt kid taking his ball away from the game.
I found that I hardly used my nexus 7 and my toddler pretty much made it his own. I use my work MacBook for everything I couldn't or did not want to do on my phone.
At some i began to feel like I needed an in betweeen device and a tablet which is essentially a bigger phone was not the answer. Enter the Asus chronebook flip. Its a thin 10 inch chromebook with a touchscreen that flips all the way around and becomes a tablet. It seems to fill that void. Once Google opens up the ability to install more android apps on chromeos, it will be even more useful.
I stopped using my nexus 7 as soon as I got a phone with a 5.2 inch screen. I think if you own a phablet it duplicates the tablet's functionality while having the benefit of being always with you.
I just found a nexus 7 (2013) being sold around the corner by a guy that never even opened the box for 150$. Should I pass if I'm going to use it for web + note taking ?
That definately happens but is an underlying cause. I'm not sure what it is. I've lived in other countries where this natural segregation does not happen.
There's a fascinating example in computational studies that partly explains this: if you have people of different groups moving around randomly on a lattice, even a very slight preference (51%/49%) for being next to people in the same group as oneself ends up leading to a self-segregated pattern.
I would recommend this as well. but i see no reason why this person cannot be your cofounder. If you are building a software based company it would help to have a technical cofounder with a vested interest.
You don't sound like a traditional start-up, so most of the advice form startup school may not apply to you. You probably don't need someone who actually writes code day to day. I would get someone with high level expertise in building and running technical teams who can start from one developer and scale up. That person will lay out your technical infrastructure while you focus on the business side of things. This is definitely not an easy find, and is harder than finding some smart student who wants to play with latest technology x that does not fit well with your business plan.
Co-founder usually means "compensated with more equity than cash". And there's also the implicit massive time commitment.
Part of the point is that an advisor is typically someone so experienced you can't afford all of their time. But they can turn enough of the problem into routine bits and pieces that it becomes easier for a person with less experience to implement correctly.
I believe all too many startups suffer from inexperienced developers throwing up the first thing that comes to mind. A little guidance goes a long way to taming youthful exuberance.
> i see no reason why this person cannot be your cofounder.
There's no real reason why anyone you find that can provide you with that service can't be your co-founder, but realistically speaking most of the people you meet won't be terribly interested in becoming a founder. It's a hell of a lot of hard work and it's very risky.
If you can convince him to take an equity stake, by all means hammer out an agreement, but you can get from zero to one even if he doesn't, simply by paying him for a clear set of deliverables.
I quickly browsed the article and I'm not sure how they defined quality. To answer the original question I'd say pick what you're familiar with or what you can easily hire for in your location.
I agree with Matt's ideals but not the actions. The reality is theres not a whole lot he can do without looking like spoilt kid taking his ball away from the game.