The year in review 2025

Daniel Opitz
Daniel Opitz
12 Dec 2025

2025 wasn’t a year of big launches or loud announcements.
It was a year of slowing down, refactoring, and choosing quality over speed.

Looking back, that was exactly what I needed.

Slim 5

I began active development with Slim 5 and made a few architectural decisions that felt necessary.

These changes weren’t about features.
I wanted Slim to behave more like frameworks such as ASP.NET, especially in terms of middleware order, to make things clearer and easier to maintain in the long run.

Statistics

My GitHub activity dropped noticeably this year:

Less visible work, but more responsibility.
Maintenance is not glamorous, but it matters.

This wasn’t neglect - it was a conscious decision to reduce output and increase focus.

Development Environment

With XAMPP being discontinued, I explored modern alternatives - mainly Docker / WSL2.

While powerful, Docker didn’t work well for me as a daily PHP development environment:

So I built my own solution instead:
a local setup script that installs and configures everything automatically - fast, simple, and debugger-friendly.

Windows 11: Progress in the wrong direction?

This year, I switched to Windows 11 - and honestly, it feels like one of the worst Windows versions so far when it comes to usability.

What really surprised me is Microsoft’s current direction: adding AI-powered features everywhere. Notepad now comes with a rich text editor. Yes - Notepad. Hahaha.

At the same time, Windows keeps consuming more and more memory. A big reason seems to be the ongoing shift toward web-based UI technologies inside the operating system itself. More abstraction, more overhead - and not necessarily a better user experience.

Sometimes it feels like progress for the sake of progress, rather than improvement for the user.

Learning

Instead of conferences, I invested time in Udemy courses.

Why this worked better:

Less travel, more learning.

Observations on PHP

Is PHP losing momentum?

It feels like overall PHP interest has declined:

That said, this might be misleading.
With AI tools, many developers simply need less community interaction to move forward.

AI is a Tool - Responsibility is still ours

One of the biggest topics in 2025.

AI has become an extremely valuable tool in our daily work. It helps us move faster, find solutions more easily, and reduce repetitive tasks. Used well, it can significantly improve productivity.

However, faster produced code does not automatically mean better software.

We are still responsible for what we build. For its quality, its security, and its long-term impact. If we allow convenience to replace understanding and care, this industry risks losing the trust of the people who rely on our systems every day.

AI should support our thinking, not replace it. Craftsmanship, experience, and ethical responsibility remain essential - especially now, when producing software has never been easier.

A job market in transition

The job market changed dramatically this year - and not in subtle ways.

What once felt like a stable, growing environment suddenly became more uncertain, more competitive, and noticeably quieter.

Open positions disappeared faster, hiring processes slowed down, and expectations increased at the same time. Companies seem more cautious, more selective, and less willing to take risks. For many, this shift felt abrupt and uncomfortable.

AI, economic pressure, and years of overhiring are clearly reshaping the landscape.

The result is a market where experience, adaptability, and real skills matter more than titles or buzzwords. It’s no longer enough to “know the right tools” - understanding fundamentals and being able to think critically has become essential again.

This change is unsettling, but it might also be a necessary correction. One that reminds us that long-term value is built through substance, not hype.

Where I see things going (2026)

Looking ahead, I expect a few shifts:

Personal Notes

One unexpected highlight of 2025: I started baking bread.

BTW: The software industry is slowly losing its sense of real quality. It reminds me of bakeries that switched to pre-mixed flours to produce faster, cheaper bread that isn’t even good for our health anymore. Bread (and software) needs time, passion and experience to become good.

Lessions learned

If I had to summarize 2025 in one sentence:

Quality beats speed. Most of the time.

Rushing leads to stress, poor quality, and burnout.
Thinking things through and deciding clearly is healthier - and more effective in the long run.

Looking toward 2026

In 2026, I plan to:

2025 reminded me that quiet progress is still progress.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas, good health, and a Happy New Year 2026 🎉🥂✌️🍀.

Daniel