Hello Handmade community! I hope your 2025 is going brilliantly so far. I have a few key updates for you to kick off the year.
Unwind is back!
I am pleased to announce that, after a bit of a hiatus, our interview show Unwind is back. Our latest episode is an interview with Alex (aolo2), a web developer turned CPU engineer whose projects are a constant inspiration. We discuss the creation of his collaborative whiteboarding app, the Slack replacement he made for a previous job, and his latest project, a lightning-fast CPU trace viewer. You can watch the episode on YouTube.
For this re-launch of Unwind, we’ve changed the format of the show from live to pre-recorded interviews. It’s basically a podcast now instead of a live show, and we hope this will help us put out episodes more frequently and consistently. Personally, I’m very excited for this change. The old Handmade Network Podcast, hosted by Ryan Fleury, generated an incredible amount of conversation, reached a wide audience, and clarified what we care about as a community. Past episodes of Unwind had great content, but the format made it difficult to have the same kind of impact. We hope the podcast format takes us back to those old heights.
And speaking of the podcast, we have actually rebranded the Handmade Network Podcast as Unwind and are using the same podcast feed. If you had previously subscribed on any podcast platform, you should now see Unwind in your subscription feed. All the old episodes are still available too, so we hope you enjoy perusing the backlog. However, please be aware that some episodes (like the most recent one) are intended to be watched in video form, so we recommend watching on YouTube or Spotify. You can always find the audio feed at https://handmade.network/podcast.
The foundation is still in progress…
The Handmade Software Foundation is still in the process of being launched. After a failed attempt at creating a 501(c)(3), last year we submitted a new application to the IRS for a 501(c)(6). I believe this is a blessing in disguise—unlike a 501(c)(3), the 501(c)(6) designation allows us to explicitly focus on benefiting the software industry.
It seems the IRS has soured on software 501(c)(3)’s anyway. I blame OpenAI. But in fact, the tax code states that 501(c)(3) organizations must exist for educational, scientific, or charitable purposes, and it’s actually not clear that most software nonprofits fit those descriptions. In the year 2025, it seems clear that the mere act of releasing software for free is not particularly “charitable”, and the definitions of “educational” and “scientific” can only be stretched so far. After all, if your “charity” is funded by a big tech company who depends on your software for their business, are you really a charity or are they just avoiding taxes?
Now, a 501(c)(6) does not have the same benefits as a 501(c)(3). The largest difference for donors is that donations are NOT tax-deductible. However, as a 501(c)(6) we will still pay no income tax, meaning that 100% of your donation goes to us and our mission.
While we wait for the IRS to process our application, we’re still working behind the scenes to set up donations and make tangible plans to support Handmade software. You can view the website at https://handmade.foundation/, although it’s a bit of a work in progress and the specifics are subject to change.
We need your help to plan this year’s jams!
We got a late start on planning jams this year due to a pile of other important business. We’re still planning to run the Wheel Reinvention Jam this year like we always do, but we’d appreciate your feedback for what other jam or jams we should run this year. If you have any thoughts or ideas, please jump into the #network-meta channel in the Discord and join the discussion!
Thanks as always for being an amazing community. I’m proud to be part of it.
Ben
