More than thirteen years after I started creating vendor-neutral webinars, it’s time for another change¹: the ipSpace.net subscriptions became perpetual. If you have an active ipSpace.net subscription, it will stay valid indefinitely² (and I’ll stop nagging you with renewal notices).

Wow, Free Lunch?

Sadly, that’s not the case.

I will gradually stop creating new webinars, and making the subscriptions perpetual was the only fair way to ensure the subscribers get what they paid for. The webinars I promised for autumn 2023 will definitely happen but later than expected, and I might keep extending the networking fundamentals materials. Beyond that, the crystal ball is hazy.

What Will Happen With

• Online courses: You can no longer buy them (nor the Expert Subscription), but I will keep supporting you if you bought them in the past.
• ipSpace.net blog: I will keep ranting and writing about exciting tools and technologies (what else did you expect?), but probably not every day.
• netlab software: no change. That’s one of the beauties of free and open-source software – keep sending the PRs and the software will keep evolving. On a more serious note, I’ll keep adding features and fixing bugs, and I have a few projects in mind relying on it, so it’s not going anywhere.

But I Would Love to Get Access to Your Materials

No worries. You can still buy the Standard subscription until January 1st 2024. At that time I’ll set the expiration date of your subscription to January 1st, 2100³. If both of us are still around after the modified expiration date, email me, and I’ll extend it further.

Hey, What’s Going On?

Glad you asked (or at least got this far). I’m going through creative burnout, and making new stuff (even as simple as turning email replies into blog posts) is becoming harder and harder. Slowing down and hoping for an eventual recharge of the creative batteries is the only way forward I could find.

More Questions and Answers

I explained the changes I’m making to ipSpace.net subscribers a few days ago⁴ and got a few questions you might also be interested in:

Am I right in assuming I’ll be having access to the material “forever” then?

Yes, for a very small value of “forever” compared to the expected time of the heat death of the universe ;) However, it might not be a bad idea to download the interesting stuff – Cloudflare promised that won’t cost me a dime.

Also, how will it work for those just subscribing after the news? Will it be like a one-time payment?

Exactly.

Do you plan on having options to download the material?

It was always possible to download everything. There’s even a download button in the UI (the down-pointing arrow next to the video/file name)

If I want to upgrade my subscription to the expert one and to be able to watch webinars that are exclusively included in the expert subscription, would I be able still to do it with new changes?

No. The expert subscription disappeared today, but I will make some of those materials gradually available as part of standard subscription.

It sounds like you are ready to retire. Is this the case?

Probably not. I tried it out once, and you see how well that turned out – I got bored and started blogging. I do have to disconnect and recharge though.

What comes next for you?

No clear idea yet. However, I had an interesting chat about Kubernetes and eBPF a few days ago, so who knows…

What is the OSS you are working on?

https://netlab.tools/