On December 5 2024 I held a brief webinar explaining the ideas and concepts behind Rock-solid curl, and I figured I would just share the video here:
See also: rock-solid.curl.dev
Tag Archives: support
No need to email me about Cisco AnyConnect
My name and email address can be found in the VPN client application made by Cisco called AnyConnect.
They are present there as part of the curl license, because this product – like thousands of others – uses libcurl. My name appears in many products.
Apparently, people often have problems finding an appropriate address to contact when they have issues with this app. This leads a disproportionate amount of them to send emails to me asking for solutions and fixes to their situations.
So far over the years, close to one hundred different persons have emailed me about problems with Cisco’s AnyConnect. I have not been able to help a single one of them because I know nothing about this application.
The reason my email address is shown there is because I am the lead developer of curl, which is but a small component in this application. I am not associated with Cisco nor this product.
This is the support email address you are looking for:
ac-mobile-feedback@cisco.com
See also: other funny emails I got and curl credit screenshots.
Rock-solid curl
I am thrilled to announce:
Rock-Solid curl: long term supported curl releases
Basics
We make long term support releases of curl that we call Rock-solid curl.
We support each release branch for at least five years.
We only merge security fixes and important stability bugfixes into these branches for updates. No new features. No surprises.
We offer Rock-solid curl downloads to existing support customers. It means that there is no free and open access to these releases. To get access, become a customer!
Rock-solid curl is released under the same license as normal curl (or optionally a commercial license). No funny business.
Rock-solid curl is meant to greatly reduce the risk of regressions and yet be a safe and secure solution with full support. For the companies who want this extra level of attention. An even smoother ride.
We plan to make new Rock-solid curl release branches roughly every 18-24 months.
The first Rock-solid curl release
Rock-solid curl 8.9.2 is the first long-term support curl version. As the version number implies, it is based on the curl 8.9.1 release that we shipped back in July, with two security fixes and a small number of stability patches applied.
Once you have a contract with us, you can get it.
Who is doing this?
I, Daniel Stenberg, will be the primary support person for Rock-solid curl and I will do the releases, and most of the patching and the back-porting of what is deemed necessary.
Customers sign contracts with wolfSSL for this. wolfSSL pays my salary. I have worked for and with wolfSSL with this business setup since 2019.
What about “the normal” curl?
Nothing changes with or happens to the curl project and the regular curl releases because of this. No one is going anywhere. The curl license remains the same. The curl releases and the release cadence remain intact.
Support customers help fund the project by allowing us to pay developers.
How do I become a customer?
Head over to rock-solid.curl.dev and contact us via the provided links.
Downloads and all Rock-solid curl information is hosted on the dedicated rock-solid.curl.dev site, separate from the open source project on curl.se.
On curl
Born in the late 1990s, curl is a client-side Internet transfer engine. Installed in over twenty billion instances it serves virtually everything that is internet connected: phones, tablets, cars, television sets, printers, medical devices, game consoles, helicopters on other planets, etc and it is an embedded component in a significant share of our most used and beloved apps, tools, games and services.
curl is the fruit and outcome from hard work by thousands of volunteers and is completely free and Open Source. The curl project is independent. It is not part of any umbrella organization or foundation and it is not owned nor controlled by any company.
curl is secure, fast and feature-rich. It is a defacto standard and key infrastructure.
commercial curl support!
If you want commercial support, ports of curl to other operating systems or just instant help to fix your curl related problems, we’re here to help. Get in touch now! This is the premiere. This has not been offered by me or anyone else before.
I’m not sure I need to say it, but I personally have authored almost 60% of all commits in the curl source code during my more than twenty years in the project. I started the project, I’ve designed its architecture etc. There is simply no one around with my curl experience and knowledge of curl internals. You can’t buy better curl expertise.
curl has become one of the world’s most widely used software components and is the transfer engine doing a large chunk of all non-browser Internet transfers in the world today. curl has reached this level of success entirely without anyone offering commercial services around it. Still, not every company and product made out there has a team of curl experts and in this demanding time and age we know there are times when you rather hire the right team to help you out.
We are the curl experts that can help you and your team. Contact us for all and any support questions at support@wolfssl.com.
What about the curl project?
I’m heading into this new chapter of my life and the curl project with the full knowledge that this blurs the lines between my job and my spare time even more than before. But fear not!
The curl project is free and open and will remain independent of any commercial enterprise helping out customers. I realize me offering companies and organizations to deal with curl problems and solving curl issues for compensation creates new challenges and questions where boundaries go, if for nothing else for me personally. I still think this is worth pursuing and I’m sure we can figure out and handle whatever minor issues this can lead to.
My friends, the community, the users and harsh critiques on twitter will all help me stay true and honest. I know this. This should end up a plus for the curl project in general as well as for me personally. More focus, more work and more money involved in curl related activities should improve the project.
It is with great joy and excitement I take on this new step.
I’m on team wolfSSL
Let me start by saying thank you to all and everyone who sent me job offers or otherwise reached out with suggestions and interesting career moves. I received more than twenty different offers and almost every one of those were truly good options that I could have said yes to and still pulled home a good job. What a luxury challenge to have to select something from that! Publicly announcing me leaving Mozilla turned out a great ego-boost.
I took some time off to really reflect and contemplate on what I wanted from my next career step. What would the right next move be?
I love working on open source. Internet protocols, and transfers and doing libraries written in C are things considered pure fun for me. Can I get all that and yet keep working from home, not sacrifice my wage and perhaps integrate working on curl better in my day to day job?
I talked to different companies. Very interesting companies too, where I have friends and people who like me and who really wanted to get me working for them, but in the end there was one offer with a setup that stood out. One offer for which basically all check marks in my wish-list were checked.
wolfSSL
On February 5, 2019 I’m starting my new job at wolfSSL. My short and sweet period as unemployed is over and now it’s full steam ahead again! (Some members of my family have expressed that they haven’t really noticed any difference between me having a job and me not having a job as I spend all work days the same way nevertheless: in front of my computer.)
Starting now, we offer commercial curl support and various services for and around curl that companies and organizations previously really haven’t been able to get. Time I do not spend on curl related activities for paying customers I will spend on other networking libraries in the wolfSSL “portfolio”. I’m sure I will be able to keep busy.
I’ve met Larry at wolfSSL physically many times over the years and every year at FOSDEM I’ve made certain to say hello to my wolfSSL friends in their booth they’ve had there for years. They’re truly old-time friends.
wolfSSL is mostly a US-based company – I’m the only Swede on the team and the only one based in Sweden. My new colleagues all of course know just as well as you that I’m prevented from traveling to the US. All coming physical meetings with my work mates will happen in other countries.
commercial curl support!
We offer all sorts of commercial support for curl. I’ll post separately with more details around this.