Although I don't like complaining about working too much or burnout, there are points at which it is fair to speak up about such issues, in my opinion.

For me, as I approach 2 years without a single day of a break in developing hyprland, I believe that entitles me to open up a bit about how it's been from my side.

So, welcome to "that one rant about working all the time by a random dude online".

Background

I've been working, pretty much without a day of a break on Hyprland since March 2022. If you don't believe me, check my github profile:

There are some 1-day gaps in my activity here and there, but most of them do not mean I wasn't developing or on github at all that day.

Throughout those 21 months I have written over 100k lines just in hyprland alone. Alongside, I have been moderating my discord server, making youtube videos, managing my own personal life, enduring a lot of hate online, doing sport and going to university.

In the free time I'd find I'd play some games.

It's generally a lot of things to be doing at once and I am not surprised many would question how I find time for all of this. My answer is: I don't know. Really.

Although it's always been somewhat of a dream of mine to be helping a lot of people by making software they enjoy, after some time, it all comes at a price. Sanity, health, private life.

What I've been doing

For the longest time, I'd just do the littlest things when I was at my lowest points. Review a MR or two, write a small commit or something to tidy something up, etc.

I've always had a mindset (and still do...) that my state should not really hamper hyprland's growth too much as long as it's possible. I am fine with sacrificing myself a bit for the greater good.

That's also why for a looong while now I've been prioritizing plugin-related issues. Plugins are a great way for me to delegate some of the development burden onto other people. Features never implemented (either because I didn't feel they belonged or I didn't want to) are being impl'd as plugins. See amazing stuff like hy3, hycov or hyprgrass just to name three.

It's really hard to focus on specific issues, too. I don't have a moderator on github, and as such there are tons of dupes and poorly worded issues. Issues aren't labelled properly either, so it's hard to sort through them. The only metric I can reliably sort by is likes.

What to do?

At the current state, taking a break is almost impossible for me. Hyprland is entirely ran by me, however you want to look at it. There are some repeat contributors whose MRs I highly value (Dickby, thejch, memchr, MightyPlaza just to name a few) but they are nowhere near a level at which they would be suitable replacements during a vacation of mine. All of their contributions combined would not amount to even 5% of my contributions.

Fufexan is a great friend of mine - but he isn't really great at C++ and focuses more on the build systems and Nix.

Call to you

That's why I am turning to you - the community. There's a lot of you out there, and I'd estimate more than 100k people use Hyprland in some way, shape or form out there in the world. I haven't started collecting telemetry yet to back it up with data, though. :P

If you believe you have what it takes to write C++, try it out. Try out picking an issue from the over 666 open ones at the moment and have a stab at fixing/implementing it.

As hyprland grows more and more, more and more use-cases need to be considered, and as such, more and more bugs are found. Many are easy fixes, many are not.

If you are a new developer - maybe a student, contributing to Hyprland is also a great way to build up your experience with working with big projects and something to possibly put on your CV.

If you prefer, try and make a plugin! There are a lot of simple plugins you can take a peek at to better understand how they work. Also check out the wiki for a tutorial on how to get started with plugin dev.

The more MRs are made, the more my burden of maintenance is eased, as all in all, reviewing MRs is less time-consuming than writing the code :P

If you want to reach me for support regarding development, you can always find me in #hyprland-dev on our discord server, or in #[email protected]. Please note the latter is not for pointless chats between random people, it's when you wanna ask a technical question directly to me. Maybe if a lot of people will ask for an IRC I'll make one.

Closing thoughts

No, I am not quitting. As I've said, Hyprland in its current state cannot continue without me.

I've heard many, many times from Hyprland haters that "someone should fork the project", but look, the truth is, nobody wants to. It's a massive undertaking to maintain a behemoth like this, especially single-handedly.

Special thanks

Special thanks for the ongoing support to:

• fufexan - for all the help with CI / Nix / Build systems
• raf, end_4, mathisbuilder - for moderating the discord server
• Hyprland contributors - for their code and time
• Brodie Robertson - for the youtube coverage as youtube's #1 Wayland shill
• All of my ko-fi supporters - for the financial support
• Everyone who makes positive content, posts, or comments about Hyprland - for putting a smile on my face
• All Hyprland users - for enjoying my software

Ad meliora.

Super closer

To add a bit of a more personal feeling to this blogpost I'll share a few cool songs I found recently that I really like. Feel free to send cool songs in #music on our Discord server.

Sundazer - Cry Wolf (metal) - tidal
Desired - Neon Maze (weeb stuff) - tidal
Holy Molly - Shot a friend (house) - tidal
Creepy Nuts - Baka Majime (weeb stuff) - tidal