So how long have we got until the apps and machine platform starts winding down?

1

Given this blog post: Turn And Face The Strange · The Fly Blog

You’ve said that you don’t believe in the apps platform anymore, that sprites are the focus of the company now, and that you don’t intend to half ass two things.

So can we get an honest estimate of how long until you start winding it down? Or some kind of public commitment that it’s not going to happen? Because right now it feels like a huge risk to continue with Fly.

2

He also said “I quit” - so hopefully his successor doesn’t have the same opinion. :man_shrugging: There’s many companies that can do multiple things very well… don’t think it’s too much to ask for Machines, Apps and Sprites to co-exist. :money_bag:

3

machines are staying!

4

Fly Machines and our Platform As A Service features aren’t going anywhere

Let’s hope they stick with it.

5

Not only aren’t Machines going anywhere, but also we have been hard at work on improving reliability of Machines, or Sprites, and just our platform in general while getting rid of some technical debt we have been accumulating in the past. I’m sure you’ll hear about these either as Fresh Produces, or, on our Infra Log (ideally as Fresh Produces because Infra Logs happen after incidents :wink: ).

“Computers for agents” does not just mean Sprites. Machines are also a huge part of it. They are what got us to here today; and that’s definitely a reason not to wind them down, but instead continue improving them for the future.

6

The same was written about GPU: We Were Wrong About GPUs · The Fly Blog

In there it was noted that: “GPUs aren’t going anywhere … we’re not getting rid of them.”

Then about a year later: GPU migration - "Fly.io GPUs will be deprecated as of July 31, 2026"

So at least there’s a bit of non-confidence-inspiring history.

7

that’s a good callout. the difference is that GPUs had very few users, and GPUs cost us a lot of operational effort (and money). fly machines have many, many users, and are growing every day; keeping them running, and improving them, is a better use of our time.

if everyone stops using fly machines one day, I can’t promise we won’t get rid of them then. but as long as the interest to use them exists, and it very much seems to, we still have a good reason to keep them around :slightly_smiling_face: