Ich bin ein Berliner

Well, no, not really but maybe I'll be able to claim that at some point because I'm moving to Berlin to join Kinvolk. I'm told that I'm changing countries and companies too often but that's not true. I was at Red Hat for 5 years and at Nokia before that for 5 years as well. The decision to move out of Finland was not exactly mine.

Regarding Pelagicore

I'm not as much leaving Pelagicore as I'm leaving the automotive industry, more specifically the software side of it. While the automotive industry is changing and mostly for the good, I realized that it still is not a place for me. Things typically move very slowly in this industry and I realized that I don't have the required patience for it. Also, C++/Qt are big here and while an year ago I thought it's just another language and Open Source UI framework, I no longer think so. Since you can find a lot of rants from very experienced C++ developers on why C++ is a horrible language, I won't rant about that in here.

My experience with Qt hasn't been that great either. Most of the documentation I found would simply assume you use Qt Creator and despite my years of experience with D-Bus, it took me weeks to figure out how to make a few D-Bus calls from Qt (I have to admit though that the calls involved complex types). While Nokia made Qt a normal Open Source project by relicensing it under LGPLv2, the Qt company recently realized that it's loosing a lot of money by people using Qt in products without paying them anything so they relicensed it under GPLv3 and commercial (i-e dual-license).  I maintained Genivi Development Platform for 6 months and because of this relicensing, we were unable to upgrade Qt 5.6 to Qt 5.7 and overtime it had been becoming a major pain point in that project. To make things even less open-sourcy, they require all contributors to sign a CLA. I believe (and I think many would agree) that CLAs are bad for Open Source. So all those things put together, I don't think of Qt as a typical Open Source project. Feel free to disagree but that's how I feel and hence I'm not keen on working with Qt in future.

Having said all that, Pelagicore is a very awesome company and probably the best place to be if you're fine with C++/Qt and want to be part of the next-gen automotive. It might sound like I just contradicted myself but not everyone thinks and sees the world like me. To each, his own and all. Also Pelagicore is hiring!

Why leave Gothenburg?

Gothenburg is a very lovely city and I'm going to miss it a lot for sure, even though I've been only here for an year. I still love the Swedish language, which I have been learning slowly over the year. However, I've not been happy with the cost of living in here, especially Veterinary costs. I have an old cat with multiple conditions so I need to visit the Vet every few months. The Vet charge 700 SEK just to see him and most often they don't even care to read through his records beforehand.

Gothenburg is also currently the best place to find an accommodation in. To get a first-hand contract, you register yourself in on Boplats website and keep on applying to new listings but typical wait-time is in years, not months or weeks. In practice, it's usually not a problem. Most people just get a second-hand contract or a room in a shared flat to start with and then look for a more permanent solution. However, add a cat into the picture and things get very difficult again.

Kinvolk comes along

Because of the reasons stated above, I've been looking for some exciting opportunities outside automotive world in some nice location. I had been focused on finding jobs that either involve Rust language or at least there were good chances of Rust being involved. Long story short, I ultimately got in touch with Kinvolk folks. I already knew the company's founders: Chris, Alban and Iago. They are very good at what they do and fun folks to hang out with.

While Rust is not a big part of work at Kinvolk currently, they (especially Chris) seem very interested in it. From what I know, main languages at Kinvolk are C and Go. I don't mind coding in C anyway and I've been missing the times when I did any kernel programming in it. I've no experience of Go but from what I hear, it's a pretty decent language.

So after interviews etc, when Kinvolk offered me a job, I couldn't resist accepting it. Berlin is an awesome city and it's hard to say "no" to moving there.

If you're looking for a great place to work at on Linux-related tech with some very competent Open Source developers, do consider applying at Kinvolk.

Cellink

Talking of great companies to work at, I recently got in contact with some folks from Cellink. It's a biotech company based in Gothenburg, whose aim is to end animal testing. They plan to achieve this very noble goal through 3D printers that print human tissues. They already have 2 products that they sell to pharmaceutical companies in 30 countries across the globe. While they already have the bio and hardware side of things covered, they are looking to expand their software side of things now and to do that, they need good software engineers, especially ones with Open Source experience.

Here is a video of a very nice intro to their awesome work from their CEO, Erik Gatenholm.

So if you're an Open Source developer and either live in or willing to relocate to (especially) Gothenburg, Cambridge (USA) or Bay Area, please contact me and I can connect you to the right people. Alternatively, feel free to contact them directly. I only want to help these folks achieve their very noble cause.