{"id":72434,"date":"2023-06-01T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/?p=72434"},"modified":"2023-06-01T16:53:02","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T23:53:02","slug":"mieco-jeff-lindsay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/mozilla\/mieco-jeff-lindsay\/","title":{"rendered":"Advancing the future of the internet with the \u2018Photoshop of software\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A
Jeff Lindsay is working to build the Photoshop of software at his company Progrium.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

More than ever, we need a movement to ensure the internet remains a force for good. The Mozilla Internet Ecosystem<\/a> (MIECO) program fuels this movement by supporting people who are looking to advance a more human-centered internet. With MIECO, Mozilla is looking to foster a new era of internet innovation that moves away from \u201cfast and breaking things\u201d and into a more purposeful, collaborative effort that includes voices and perspectives from many different companies and organizations.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week we\u2019re highlighting <\/em>Jeff Lindsay<\/em><\/a>, a self-proclaimed \u201crogue software engineer\u201d who\u2019s working to build the Photoshop of software at his company <\/em>Progrium<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Jeff Lindsay has been shaking things up in Silicon Valley for the last two decades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2000s, he helped start SuperHappyDevHouse, a series of large parties for laptop-toting hackers to \u201cwork on whatever they feel like working on,\u201d as his co-founder David Weekly once described<\/a> it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeff went on to develop a reputation for his ability to build things quickly while freelancing across the Bay Area. While working at a NASA research center<\/a> in Mountain View, he was involved in developing OpenStack, an open source version of Amazon’s cloud service. Jeff also helped design and prototype the software Docker, which has become a billion-dollar company that creates productivity tools. He coined and pioneered webhooks, a standard way to create app integrations and plugins. Over the years, developers widely adopted his open source tools and libraries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, in collaboration with MIECO, Jeff is working on Tractor System, a tool that lets users build software in a way that\u2019s similar to creating and editing in Photoshop. His company, Progrium, is on a mission to empower the next generation of makers by providing tools and resources to reduce the complexity of computing through generative building blocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeff wants to make it easier for people to make software for themselves so that they\u2019re less dependent on vendors who make software for companies and their needs. As the landscape of software development continues to evolve at a rapid pace, Jeff\u2019s work aims to bridge the gap between using software, and creating it.

Tractor System is about building software that works for people, not corporations, Jeff said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPhotoshop gives you the tools to do image manipulation yourself,\u201d he explained. \u201cSo if I can build something that gives you enough tools to assemble and interact with software systems in a very general sense, then it opens up a whole lot more possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He compared using Tractor System to having pre-assembled Lego kits. \u201cYou just take these pieces, and you put them together in new and novel ways,\u201d he said. \u201cThen you can take [the structure] apart and remix it with another kit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeff said the idea was inspired by game development, where designers can configure and make custom components using the game engine Unity. In a sense, Tractor System takes him back to how he got started as a programmer in the first place: finding a Commodore 64 at a flea market and then learning how to make games from programming books at his local library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love anything that gives programmers more superpowers,\u201d Jeff said. \u201cAnd I love anything that then makes programming more accessible, because then regular people get those superpowers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than ever, we need a movement to ensure the internet remains a force for good. The Mozilla Internet Ecosystem (MIECO) program fuels this movement by supporting people who are looking to advance a more human-centered internet. With MIECO, Mozilla is looking to foster a new era of internet innovation that moves away from \u201cfast […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1889,"featured_media":72353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[464191],"coauthors":[464117],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAdvancing the future of the internet with the \u2018Photoshop of software\u2019<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jeff Lindsay, a self-proclaimed \u201crogue software engineer," is working to build the Photoshop of software at his company Progrium.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/mozilla\/mieco-jeff-lindsay\/\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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