Professional maintainers: a wake-up call (blog.filippo.io)

Article summary

The article discusses the role of open source maintainers and how it has failed to mature into a proper profession, leading to unsustainable consequences such as burnout and security vulnerabilities. The author argues that companies need to start paying maintainers for their work, rather than relying on donations or volunteer efforts. This would allow maintainers to focus on the long-term health of the project and deliver on company requirements. The author suggests that maintainers should become legible to big companies and send them invoices for support and sponsorship.

Main themes

• open source sustainability
• maintainer burnout
• security vulnerabilities
• payment models
• company responsibility
• license changes
• contributor expectations

What commenters say

• Some argue that the current system is unsustainable and that maintainers need to be paid for their work to ensure the long-term health of open source projects.
• Others believe that the status quo is not broken and that open source maintainers are not entitled to payment for their volunteer work.
• It is suggested that testing and security audits may not be enough to prevent bugs and security vulnerabilities, and that a more comprehensive approach is needed.
• There is disagreement over whether the log4j bug could have been prevented with more time and money, with some arguing that it was a design flaw rather than a resource issue.
• Some commenters believe that open source maintainers should be able to make a living from their work, while others think that this is not a realistic expectation.
• The idea of changing the license to require companies to pay for use is proposed, but others argue that this would not be effective or fair.
• There is a discussion about the value of open source software and whether users have a responsibility to contribute back to the projects they use, either through money or time.