
Welcome x 11 - runesoerensen
https://blog.ycombinator.com/welcome-x11
======
cperciva
My immediate reaction when I saw this on twitter: "YC is funding x11? But I
thought it was Xorg now...".

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nodesocket
Since Sam has taken over at the helm, the expansion of YC including adding
partners and employees has been dramatic. The YC website got an overhaul,
added (the macro), created YC fellowship and Y Research. It seems like Sam's
vision for YC is much larger than PG's was.

While under PG, YC kept things small, specific, and focused. Don't get me
wrong, I think Sam is doing an absolutely fantastic job. However there is a
stark contrast in scale, speed, and vision.

~~~
cperciva
I agree that there has been a big difference, but I think you may have cause
and effect backwards. I was under the impression that PG handed over the reins
largely because YC was growing and he wasn't interested in running a large
organization.

~~~
mathattack
Yes - Sam was hired to scale it.

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davidw
Darn, I thought they were setting a trend in windowing systems away from
Mac...

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System)

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nhebb
"Chris Clark [...] was Mayor of Mountain View.View"

Is that a typo or a file name? Hmmm, I might just add "Creator of the
Universe.txt" to my resume.

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ones_and_zeros
A few Loopt and ImagineK12 alum being brought in to the tent. What's the
connection?

~~~
jobowoo
YC and ImagineK12 merged ([http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/10/y-combinator-
absorbs-edtech...](http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/10/y-combinator-absorbs-
edtech-accelerator-imagine-k12-creating-specialized-vertical/)).

Geoff is/was a partner at both YC and ImagineK12.

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1123581321
Will someone please explain what is an associate at YC compared to traditional
firms?

~~~
buechs
Brad has a more traditional Associate role since he's on a finance team
(Continuity). I'm responsible for the day-to-day of the founders in the
current batch and keep my finger on the pulse of our alumni community (in
associate-speak, on our portfolio companies). There's very little financial
modeling for me (thank god) and a lot of figuring out how to 1/ scale our
resources and 2/ make our growing network feel connected.

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pcmaffey
Did YC research ever find someone for the universal income study?

~~~
anateus
At a talk in SF this week Matt Krisiloff said they've narrowed down the around
1000 applications to about 10 at the moment.

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ori_b
"Well, that's a funny way to spell X11"

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bitwize
I was like "Welcome X11? You mean there's someone at YC who hasn't boarded the
Wayland hypetrain?"

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ChrisArgyle
Maybe its a cross product? If we assume "Welcome" is a 2x1 matrix and "11" is
shorthand for [1 1]

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hkmurakami
I had two contrasting reactions/thoughts.

The first was that these additions seem excellent and that YC will be much
more capable and robust by virtue of them.

The second was a reflection on the criticism written against VC in the press
for investing in "their buddies' companies" (ex: a16z partners investing in
their friends' \--who are experienced entrepreneurs with big visions--
companies) and whether we will see a narrative in the future against the
common practice of VC firms hiring what can be seen from the outside as "their
friends".

(personally I think the practice makes sense since you've often worked with
them before and know their character and abilities)

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dantiberian
What's the purpose of the YC software team?

~~~
sandslash
A lot of things! They're making some amazing software for applications and all
the data that comes with it, internal tools for office hours and events, and
ongoing improvements to our security and infrastructure, just to name a few
things without going into too much detail. They're also there to listen to all
of us complain about not having this-or-that feature :)

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Matetricks
Congrats to all the IK12 folks! Can't wait to see more of your amazing work as
part of YC.

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vmorgulis
I'd like to have more details about YC research and YC software.

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throwaway1214
Confusing or misleading titles aside, YC has made literally billions of
dollars off of free software and the under- or unpaid labor that produces it.
They absolutely should be patronizing free software projects, perhaps not
X11/X.org/Wayland, but certainly outfits like the Debian, OpenBSD, or FreeBSD
foundations that make their startups possible.

Instead of laughing at ourselves for having misread a title as suggesting that
YC might actually contribute something back, we should be publicly shaming
them for not doing so and being an open source free-rider.

~~~
bifrost
Hi, I'm Tom, one of the folks joining. I actually work a fair amount with
FreeBSD and its surrounding organizations and have helped several projects get
financial backing including paying for code updates. You can look forward to
more updates as time goes on :)

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mavsman
Congrats to Tom Brady on venturing into the VC world!

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andrewstuart2
Haha, I definitely thought this was going to be about investments in the X
Window System, not 11 different people joining YC.

~~~
thegigaraptor
I thought the exact same thing.

~~~
sdegutis
Came here to say this. I hope the fact that I'm using my very limited
noprocrast window to say this adds weight to this expression of my
disappointment.

