If I’d released the content under, say, a Creative Commons Attribution license, that would also be fine (though implausible, since the site has a giant SEO moat).
Oh hi. Thank you for that tutorial. I learned to code through it. That tutorial was the launching point for a career that has so far seen me get to co-founder and CTO of daybreakhealth.com. The company has served thousands of teens, and your tutorial played a part.
It’s fine to capture some value—the @RailsTutorial is a commercial product whose parent company was acquired in 2022—but don’t worry about squeezing out every drop. After all, the @RailsTutorial wouldn’t exist without @dhh, but I didn’t give him a cut, and he’s OK with that!
When @RailsTutorial readers tell me, “I owe my career to you,” I like to respond by saying, “Thanks, but I shall be satisfied with a humble 10% of your lifetime earnings.” This always gets a laugh, but it’s only funny because (per @dhh’s view) everyone knows it isn’t true!
I feel much the same way about the @RailsTutorial. When I found out a management consultant used it to learn to code and then founded a company she sold for $36 million, I thought, “Cool!”, not “Where’s my cut?!” huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/05…
"The open source spirit: To let a billion lemons go unsqueezed. To capture vanishingly less than you create. To marvel at a vast commons of software, offered with no strings attached, to any who might wish to build." world.hey.com/dhh/capture-le…
The @RailsTutorial that launched so many Ruby on Rails devs careers.
You will learn how to create your first real Ruby on Rails application by building a small Twitter (X urgh) clone.