[dSebastien]

That's why I'm building Knowii Voice AI. It's a fork of Handy (handy.computer) in which I'm going to add fun features, exploring different areas of what we can do with voice on a computer.

It's local first, privacy first, one-time payment. You buy it and get lifetime updates.

Currently available for Windows and very soon for MacOS and Linux. I'm working on Wayland/Hyprland support because I'm using Omarchy;-)

https://voice-ai.knowii.net

[geor9e]

so you're asking for $50 for a fork of a free app, on the premise that you're "going to" add to it

[dSebastien]

I have already rebuilt the UI to be fully responsive (great for tiling window managers), added new features, improved the history, fixed hotkey handling for Wayland and many other things. I'm a solopreneur, and if I want my business to survive I need this endeavor to be sustainable

[dSebastien]

People who run tiny side businesses understand this is the only way to go. Yes I could have started from scratch, but what's the point.

If you look at Handy's website, you'll see that the author encourages forks anyway.

I'm also offering support for my customers and will build what they want. It's a different game.

[dSebastien]

I wrote a post with more background here: https://www.knowii.net/c/announcements/knowii-voice-ai

[odie5533]

It's literally just the free and open source Handy app with a slightly darker theme. Even your sales pitch is just lifted from Handy.

[dSebastien]

This is just not true. My landing page doesn't have much if anything in common with Handy's and that was never the goal. I stated explicitly that I forked Handy for a reason, it's not a secret and I'm not ashamed of it.

Of course, most of what my app does now is very similar to Handy, but isn't it normal when you fork something? Discrepancies grow over time, not overnight. I've already implemented many things differently, and am working on features that will probably never be in Handy anyway. I have different goals and ideas.

Some people only see evil in starting from an open source project and building something proprietary. But isn't the whole point of the MIT license to have full freedom? I love open source and I actually intend to contribute back to Handy.

People who request features from open source projects might never get what they want or need if it doesn't align with the maintainers vision or if they don't have the bandwidth. Most of the time, open source software comes without any guarantees, without any support, ... Which is perfectly fine since it all comes for free. What I'm doing is building a commercial product, with actual support, and long-term commitment to my customers.

I'm a solopreneur, working hard on the side, trying to build a sustainable business. And working on a project like this for a long time without any revenue is not sustainable unless you have enough runway. I did that a few years back and don't intend to make the same mistake again (https://www.dsebastien.net/2021-01-04-20-months-in-2k-hours-...).

As an example, I'm very focused on Knowledge Management & Obsidian. Integrating first-class support in Knowii Voice AI for interacting with Obsidian is one of the short-term goals I have in mind. It's not something that would make sense to add to Handy, it's too niche. But it does make sense for my app and my customers because many of them are also into knowledge management and have been following me for a long while.

Anyways. I'll build my project, find people who want to support my work, and do my best to deliver what they want and need. Sorry if it goes against the common ideas that forking an open source project to build something proprietary is wrong, that forks should be open source and that they should be vastly different from day one or be free.

[odie5533]

When you've added a few more features it will be fine. Obsidian integration sounds cool