EWWW Image Optimizer Mac Dev Laptop

The story of the EWWW Image Optimizer began shortly after our son was born in 2012. I love web development, and saw a need for an image optimization plugin that would work (reliably) on sites using shared hosting. I created EWWW I.O. to help those, like me, who needed an easier way to optimize the images on their site. After 500 downloads in a week, I realized the need was bigger than I anticipated. I continued developing the plugin in my spare time and kept looking for ways to make image optimization available for everyone. An aside, my Grandpa was the type of person to help you with anything he could. He was such a servant to family and friends (and even people he just met), that we would have to keep from telling him things sometimes because he would try to do more than he was physically able to handle. He couldn’t see a need and NOT fill it. My dad is much the same, and that passion for helping people has carried over to me. I couldn’t just sit by and watch people that needed help with optimizing their images.

Over the last several years, I have endeavored to maintain support of the operating systems used by those in the WordPress community: Linux, Windows, Solaris, FreeBSD, and the subject of this campaign, Mac OS X. While I was working at our local community college, I was able to use a college-owned Mac to build the binaries required to make the plugin work for those using Mac computers.

I left that job to continue developing and supporting the open source EWWW Image Optimizer plugin full-time, but now I no longer have a way to ensure compatibility with Mac OS X for a plugin that is active on over 400,000 websites. To that end, I am needing to purchase a Macbook which will enable me to continue supporting all of the wonderful Mac users out there. It will also allow be to continue working on the plugin and more importantly, to provide user support, when I am traveling. To that end, I'm reaching out to you, fellow WordPress users, friends, and family, to help me purchase a Macbook to further development of the EWWW Image Optimizer.