[codestasis]

Congratulations to the Django project and contributors on a big LTS release. And a huge thank you for the consistently excellent framework that so many have built their web dev careers on.

I'll post this as a Show HN soon, but I'll mention it now as a soft-launch introduction. After a decade of using Django I started a project I always wanted to exist: backported security and bug fixes to old versions that the Django project has dropped support for.

I've seen many Django projects eventually get stuck on an old version as the team I'm on is forced to defer upgrades in favor of commercial pressures and essential product delivery.

So you can subscribe to https://www.codestasis.com/ to stay patched on your old version, removing the urgency to upgrade. Then unsubscribe when you're caught up.

It's free for personal use and a paid subscription for businesses and organizations.

[jsmeaton]

This is awesome, good luck!

It's a project/business that I've suggested a few times on the mailing lists and I'm truly surprised it's taken this long for someone to start one up. I'll be interested to see how/if the price points change over time.

The pro tier is approximately equivalent to <= 5 hours of developer time per month. At a minimum it gives useful information to developers trying to communicate the cost of delay to management. I think my org may have opted just to pay at one stage, considering the migration from 1.8 to 1.11 was measured in weeks not days.

[codestasis]

Thanks! I toyed with the idea since 2014, after I was stuck managing a Django codebase with a gnarly middleware for a multi-tenanted website that precluded an easy upgrade.

I bookmarked this thread in 2019 where tptacek provided the impetus for the project with a one-liner suggestion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20378409 And I've just noticed you replied then too!

I also assumed someone would get around to it. It took a while to get to a place I could start and then way longer to develop than I assumed. (Not just the backports but the tooling, testing infra, and website)

That's good to hear on pricing since it reflects my experience and is my thinking behind the initial price points.

[systemvoltage]

Such a great landing page.

It gets the point across instantly, no bullshit at all. No corporate memphis illustrations [1] and no marketing fluff. Excellence in all manner.

[1] https://www.wired.co.uk/article/corporate-memphis-design-tec...

[danjac]

This is a great idea...unfortunately a company that skips on Django security patches and bug fixes will very likely be doing the same for everything else (frontend libraries, servers, etc). But there's not much you can do when you're stuck on a feature-factory treadmill, and this looks like a cost-effective way to ameliorate the problem.

[codestasis]

Yes, that's why I optimistically chose a generic name for the project. Django is a solid start and I sure have tons more work to do.

Then there's an opportunity to expand to adjacent projects it could make sense to cover.

There's lots of thinking to do, approaches to try around funding the original projects and authors, and happily aligning incentives.

[a_c]

Awesome project! Bookmarking for sure. Dumb question: after signing up, am I getting some access to a privately hosted repository(pypi.codestasis.com)? How is the mapping between personal/pro plans and features done? Are different plan levels using different repository?

Btw, might have overlooked, if I'm purchasing for my org, I would like to look at the commercial license. Can you point me to it? Or put it online if not currently available? I'm not using your service at this moment, so feel free to ignore the request as well.

[codestasis]

Not at all, good question. You do get tokened access to a private PyPI package index, specific to your account and subscription.

At the moment the personal and pro plans use the same repo and infrastructure. But pre-release packages will be listed only for pro accounts.

Here's a preview of the software license (also linked from the subscription page): https://www.codestasis.com/buy/pro/software-license/

[vagrantJin]

> It's free for personal use and a paid subscription for businesses and organizations.

This is awesome.

[codestasis]

Thanks :)

I also want to experiment with reduced pricing for non-profits, but first have to get the basics down and ship the free and enterprise versions.

And then pay back a huge debt to Django with code contributions and corporate sponsorship.

[mherrmann]

I think it's a bad idea and would recommend grandparent to charge everyone for the service, then donate parts of the proceedings back to the Django project.

[e12e]

Great project. Looks like running outdated Django will be cheaper than running outdated rails... Although I can't remember if there were multiple players delivering "lts" versions for ruby/Rails?

https://railslts.com/

[jacobian]

This is so cool, I’m really glad to see someone doing this. Best of luck!

[codestasis]

Cheers, that means a lot. Thanks for starting something truly great all those years ago!

[darkhorse13]

I genuinely love the fact that you have been able to build a company providing support for Django. I find that seriously inspiring.

[dangerbird2]

As someone maintaining a bunch of django services in need of TLC, this could be a lifesaver for me. Thank you!

[rbut]

What a great idea. We’ll be subscribing as soon as the 1.11 support is released.