Knowledge and insights from the open source community
Open Source & Feelings 2015 talk by Jacob Kaplan-Moss about long-term commitment challenges.
Learn More →Kathleen Danielson's talk on practical strategies for maintaining mental health while contributing to open source projects.
Learn More →Evan Czaplicki's talk about the difficult aspects of open source development and community management.
Learn More →Recent insights from Linus Torvalds on maintainer fatigue and the human side of open source.
Learn More →A podcast episode featuring Nolan Lawson discussing the emotional and practical realities of being an open source maintainer.
Learn More →Article about the incident where a developer corrupted widely-used libraries, highlighting the risks of dependency on single maintainers.
Learn More →Personal account by antirez about the challenges of maintaining popular open source projects.
Learn More →Essay about setting boundaries between code contribution and time commitment in open source.
Learn More →Analysis of how lack of respect and recognition contributes to maintainer burnout in open source communities.
Learn More →Georges Stavracas' personal reflection on the responsibilities and challenges of maintaining free software projects.
Learn More →Practical guidelines by Jen Krieger for maintaining sustainable involvement in open source projects.
Learn More →A tweet highlighting how GitHub's contribution graphs can inadvertently pressure maintainers and contributors.
Learn More →Beta News coverage of the Mint Linux project, highlighting the challenges of maintaining a popular Linux distribution.
Learn More →Steve Klabnik's blog on the emotional and community fallout after the original maintainer of actix-web quit due to sustained criticism over unsafe code, marking a painful moment for Rust’s values of inclusivity and collaboration.
Learn More →DHH's critique of how Automattic's business practices affect the open source ecosystem.
Learn More →Analysis of the conflict between WordPress and WP Engine, highlighting tensions in open source business models.
Learn More →Filippo Valsorda's journey to becoming a full-time open source maintainer.
Learn More →A curated list of companies that are doing open source right, providing examples of sustainable business models.
Learn More →ToolJet's experience raising venture capital funding for their open source project and the implications.
Learn More →Supabase's analysis of the decision to open source their company and the business considerations involved.
Learn More →Discussion on open source: Microsoft: 'We Love Open Source'
Learn More →Discussion on open source: Enforcing the pyramid of Open Source
Learn More →Discussion on open source: How to build an Open Source Business in 2021 (Part 1)
Learn More →Discussion on open source: Open source has a funding problem
Learn More →Discussion on open source: Full-Time Open Source With Andrew Kelley
Learn More →Discussion on open source: "Should You Open Source Your Startup?" by Ben Awad
Learn More →Discussion on open source: How to pay your rent with your open source project
Learn More →Discussion on open source: Ask HN: Dear open source devs how do you sustain yourself
Learn More →Discussion on open source: Death of an Open Source Business Model
Learn More →Discussion on open source: Open source licensing and why we're changing Plausible to the AGPL license
Learn More →Discussion on open source: Xs:code launches subscription platform to monetize open-source projects
Learn More →Discussion on open source: Balancing Makers and Takers to scale and sustain Open Source
Learn More →Discussion on open source: Lack of leadership in open source results in source-available licenses
Learn More →Discussion on open source: Defining "sustainable" for an open-source project
Learn More →Discussion on open source: FOSDEM 2019 and the challenge to finance Open Source
Learn More →Discussion on open source: Sustaining FOSS projects by democratizing the sponsorship process
Learn More →Discussion on open source: AWS, MongoDB, and the Economic Realities of Open Source
Learn More →Discussion on open source: Open Source Confronts Its Midlife Crisis
Learn More →Discussion on open source: An alternate ending to the tragedy of the commons
Learn More →Discussion on open source: Building a Business on Open Source
Learn More →Discussion on open source: Open Source Business Models Redux
Learn More →Discussion on open source: Building an Open Source Service
Learn More →Discussion on open source: The Simple Economics of Open Source
Learn More →Comprehensive analysis of sustainable funding models for open source projects and their long-term viability.
Learn More →IEEE's analysis of the current crisis in open source sustainability.
Learn More →Chad Whitacre's detailed examination of the sustainability crisis in open source and potential solutions.
Learn More →Analysis of what happens when maintainers leave projects and the impact on the ecosystem.
Learn More →Vaxry's candid account of the difficulties and frustrations of maintaining free and open source software projects.
Learn More →Tobie Langel's exploration of whether open source needs its own framework for balancing stakeholder interests.
Learn More →David Nolen's insights on scaling open source projects through creating potential for contributors.
Learn More →Domenic Denicola's critique of how Hacktoberfest's approach can harm open source projects and maintainers.
Learn More →Interview with Dries Buytaert about how open source can adapt and thrive during economic downturns.
Learn More →Nathan Schneider's analysis of governance models in open source and their effectiveness for sustainability.
Learn More →Discussion on open source sustainability: Don't fund Software that doesn't exist
Learn More →Discussion on open source sustainability: Theory: average bus factor = 1
Learn More →Discussion on open source sustainability: The Internet Relies on People Working for Free
Learn More →Discussion on open source sustainability: The Internet Was Built on the Free Labor of Open Source Developers. Is That Sustainable?
Learn More →Discussion on open source sustainability: Defining "sustainable" for an open-source project
Learn More →Discussion on open source sustainability: Let’s talk about open source sustainability
Learn More →Discussion on open source sustainability: How we lost our ability to mend
Learn More →Discussion on open source sustainability: How to support open-source software and stay sane
Learn More →Discussion on open source sustainability: Load-Bearing Internet People
Learn More →Discussion on open source sustainability: Software below the poverty line
Learn More →Discussion on open source sustainability: Altruism Still Fuels the Web. Businesses Love to Exploit It
Learn More →Discussion on open source sustainability: We need Sustainable Free and Open Source Communities
Learn More →Discussion on open source sustainability: Decentralized funding? An analysis of three programs
Learn More →Discussion on open source sustainability: $1m to pay open source maintainers on Tidelift
Learn More →Discussion on open source sustainability: Creating a New Source of Revenue for Open Source Software
Learn More →Discussion on open source sustainability: Heart of Clojure 2019 - Daniel Compton - Building Stable Foundations
Learn More →Academic paper by Russell and Vinsel on the role of maintenance in engineering education and the ethics of care.
Learn More →Jarrod Overson's analysis of the vulnerabilities in developer infrastructure and the risks they pose.
Learn More →Analysis of the risks of depending on volunteer-built digital infrastructure and potential failure scenarios.
Learn More →Discussion on open source sustainability: Roads and Bridges: The Unseen Labor Behind Our Digital Infrastructure
Learn More →Discussion on ethics and governance in open source: Indigenous wisdom as a model for software design and development
Learn More →Discussion on ethics and governance in open source: "Open Source" Does Not Mean "Includes Free Support"
Learn More →Discussion on ethics and governance in open source: Invasion of The Ethical Licenses
Learn More →Discussion on ethics and governance in open source: Blood money is fine with us, says GitLab
Learn More →Discussion on ethics and governance in open source: 6 myths about “ethical” open source licenses
Learn More →Discussion on ethics and governance in open source: Why we need an Open Source Licence that considers the misuse of our code
Learn More →Discussion on ethics and governance in open source: Major Open Source Project Revokes Access to Companies That Work with ICE
Learn More →Discussion on ethics and governance in open source: Why We Engage in FLOSS: Answers from Core Developers
Learn More →Discussion on ethics and governance in open source: Of Money, Responsibility, and Pride
Learn More →Discussion on ethics and governance in open source: Why Software Projects need Heroes (Lessons Learned from 1100+ Projects)
Learn More →Discussion on ethics and governance in open source: What Core Contributors Want
Learn More →Discussion on ethics and governance in open source: Why don't you accept donations?
Learn More →Discussion on ethics and governance in open source: Mastodon Issue #11129
Learn More →Discussion on ethics and governance in open source: Software Community Growth through "first-timers-only" issues
Learn More →Discussion on ethics and governance in open source: Finding your tribe - choosing open source communities
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: Routes of Power. Energy and Modern America
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: The Grid, Biography of an American Technology
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: Roads to Power, Britain Invents the Infrastructure State
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: Fueling the Boom: Gasoline Taxes, Invisibility, and the Growth of the American Highway Infrastructure, 1919-1956
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: The Road to the Model T: Culture, Road Conditions, and Innovation at the Dawn of the American Motor Age
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: Networks of (colonial) power: roads in French Central Africa after World War I
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: The Changing Nature of Country Roads: Farmers, Reformers, and the Shifting Uses of Rural Space, 1880 – 1905
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: Preserving the unpreservable: docile and unruly objects at MoMA
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: Difference and Dependence among Digital Workers: The Case of Amazon Mechanical Turk
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: Nature as infrastructure: Making and managing the Panama Canal watershed
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: States of maintenance: Power, politics, and Egypts irrigation infrastructure
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: Entangled agencies, material networks and repair in a building assemblage
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: Performativity, corporeality and the politics of ship disposal
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: Designing for repair?: Infrastructures and materialities of breakdown
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: Europe’s System Builders: The Contested Shaping of Transnational Road, Electricity and Rail Networks
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: Electrifying Europe and Driving Europe
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: Tensions of Europe network
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: Infrastructuralism: The Pathology of Negative Externalities
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: How fast can we transition to a low-carbon energy system
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: Next Generation Infrastructures
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: Mass Destruction: The Men and Giant Mines That Wired America and Scarred the Planet
Learn More →Scholarly discussion on infrastructure, energy, and maintenance: The Urk World: Hibernating Infrastructures and the Quest for Urban Mining
Learn More →Discussion on the financial consequences of neglecting open source maintainer compensation.
Learn More →Explores the real-world costs and risks of free software lacking commercial support.
Learn More →A critique of open source idealism and the unsustainable culture of 'free'.
Learn More →A reflection on leadership, seniority, and responsibility in modern software development.
Learn More →A philosophical critique of open source freedom in the context of labor and value.
Learn More →An exploration of ideological tensions within the open source community.
Learn More →A speculative piece on future paradigms beyond open source software.
Learn More →A metaphor-rich narrative drawing parallels between art and programming.
Learn More →A radical critique of human-computer interaction through an anarchist lens.
Learn More →Philosophical inquiry into manual work and its place in modern society.
Learn More →Advocacy for user freedom to repair hardware against legal barriers.
Learn More →An initiative celebrating open source maintainers, possibly launched in 2025.
Learn More →Proposed initiative for formalizing open source maintenance fees.
Learn More →Exploration of peer-based funding mechanisms for open projects.
Learn More →Blog post marking Maintainer Month and its significance for OSI.
Learn More →GitHub issue in which Marak declares he will no longer contribute for free.
Learn More →A post discussing expectations and misunderstandings in OSS licensing.
Learn More →A critique of open source from a labor perspective by James Halliday.
Learn More →Explores the tension between OSS maintainers and their communities.
Learn More →A critical look at Docker’s struggles and the broader lessons for open source businesses.
Learn More →Discussion about Redis Labs' licensing decisions and open source economics.
Learn More →Exploration of sustainability challenges for browser extension developers.
Learn More →Planning thread for community-focused initiatives on OSS sustainability.
Learn More →A curated collection of funding sources for open source maintainers.
Learn More →Thoughts on OSS funding and long-term contribution fatigue.
Learn More →A Twitter thread on emotional labor and burnout in open source.
Learn More →An ode to the joy and human connection behind fixing software bugs.
Learn More →Cockroach Labs’ decision to move away from open source licensing.
Learn More →Explores how open source is often maintained by very few people.
Learn More →Canonical aligns Ubuntu support and security under a commercial structure.
Learn More →Conversation with Andrew Russell about valuing software maintenance.
Learn More →A look at the creators of Dwarf Fortress and their move toward monetization.
Learn More →Historical and ethical analysis of labor behind free and open source software.
Learn More →Insights into developer behavior and sentiment about open source.
Learn More →