Eric, as a newbie still I certainly appreciate your advice and directions. Please let us know if the financing needs of the servers is begging for more contributions, so that at least those finances are not bothering your gratis contribution to this community and taking from your family needs. Best wishes BrianA_MN

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I bluntly admit my first thought was something in the line of "dumb - dumber - the IT guy who fired Eric Hameleers".

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Hi Brian

When I was raising funds for the "bear" server, enough money was donated that I can pay the rent for that server (10,88 euro/month) for more than two years to come. I rent a second server (my openvz server) which I do not advertise because it does not run any public service. This one is used for building some of the large packages for Slackware-current. Don't worry about the money. I am already covered thanks to the community.

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"And bug hunting will suffer most. You can not imagine how much time goes into SlackBuild updates sometimes... when compilation fails from one version to the next without any obvious reason. For instance, Chromium 53 for which I have packages for Slackware 14.2 and -current, refuses to compile on Slackware 14.1. For reasons unknown. I have spent only limited time on debugging the build yesterday and the night before. Which means I am now 3 days into trying to create that package. Something which would not have happened if I would have spent all my free time on it."

Au contraire, I know exactly how hard this is, which I why I appreciate your package builds. From personal experience I know this is always the devil that is in the details
with OSS. Larger complex software like LO is always a right proper pain in the ass to compile. Upstream sometimes makes weird changes for unclear gains & uncertian reasons. Still beats using microsoft products in my opinion.

I wasn't trying to creep forward to the logical conclusion that other people would produce "your" packages. I'm quite fine with them being "yours" as they have always been.
Perhaps what we could do for you is chase down bugs/problems in some of the larger more time consuming pieces of software and report back. Use your more limited (and frankly
more valuable time) to review & integrate the changes into the package. Linus style. Just an idea. that could save you precoius time and keep the builds current. Only works if a few people buy in.
If no one does, then the idea goes by the wayside, making room for something else, that people do buy into.

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It's a harsh climate for employees nowadays. One wonders who's going to buy all the
(China, India, Poland....) made products if no one has a job and makes money.
I wish You good luck buddy

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A VERY BIG thanks to Eric for his incredible contributions to this community. And what a super guy he is:

We salute you and hope you get the job of your dreams, you deserve it!

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I too would like to thank Eric for all of his contributions, without starting to make this sound like a eulogy. I've been using his multilib stuff since multilib was a thing and now I'm also using his KDE5 packages. He has always done a great job of responding to questions, even when certain idiots (*cough* me *cough*) don't RTFM closely enough.

Real Life (tm) stuff must always take priority. I'm confident that a man with your skill set will be able to land on his feet in no time.

I'm glad that the bear server/rent is taken care of into the future. Make sure to come back to the community when that changes.

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I'd like to place my appreciation of AlienBob here in the hopes it will brighten his day and possible add just a little to whatever good might come of us posting here from those who might see our posts. AlienBob has been an inspiration to me and he has been very helpful. I've seen him in IRC helping people and I've seen him in here helping people and I know that many will notice his "absence".

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Thanks Eric, and good luck with whatever comes after. Everything will be fine also with less time for Slackware as I think what makes slackware great is not only the people like you , but the whole community which is really very united !

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Good luck Eric. Hope you land somewhere which is even in a better place than IBM.
Reading through his blog and comments it appears that its a good time to send Eric well wishes, positive thoughts.. and donations to the Slackware project.

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I wish Eric the best of lucks. It really sucks but he will surely get a new job. We totally understand if things will not be the same for a while. I thank Eric for all his support to the community; now he needs our support. I hope for the best so that someday he can get back to his hobby.

All the best for the RHCE exam, Eric.

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Big Kudos to Eric from me, too.

One of those examples again, where big, extremely profitable corporations only feel obliged to its shareholders and not to its employees. And then everybody complains that "lower waged", remote employees are not as motivated as local ones. Weird world, we're living in.

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Mr Hameleers
Your motivation to drop your favorite works in order to support your family is very respectful. I'm sure you will find what your knowledge deserves. Thank you and good luck.

Edit: I'm not sure about job interviews in Holland but, saying "salam, I am Alien Bob" is enough to get a perfect job here.

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As someone who has used and enjoyed Slackware for years, your contributions to Slackware Alien Bob have been astonishing and prolific. The time, care, effort, and love you've put into the community has been, and will always be, invaluable and without peer.

I wish you the best of luck in transitioning to the next chapter of your life, and work; and that it brings your satisfaction and security.

Regards,
Robert

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That brought a smile to my face.

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