this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2025
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Open source maintainers are feeling the squeeze (www.theregister.com)
submitted 3 weeks ago by hamburgheftig@feddit.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[โ€“] Telorand@reddthat.com 28 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

Sounds to me that some maintainers need to learn how to say "no." I get that certain people use their software in critical applications, but sometimes a "fuck you, no. I'm not doing that right now" is well deserved or even necessary. You can even go a step further and cite their belligerence, if that's warranted.

The beauty of open source is that people can fork software if things aren't getting fixed or moving in a direction they like. And if they don't and still complain, bring out the ol' "fuck you, no."

Cosgrove said, "I'm afraid it'll take a significant project falling over to convince them [the users] that paying for open source maintainers is worthwhile and, in fact, may actually be a requirement.

"I don't want to see that happen because the fallout will be ugly and gross, but I'm concerned that that's what it'll take."

I disagree that it will take money. If you're a maintainer, it's your passion project. Tell people to fuck off once in a while. The people who really care will either join you to improve things or make something better out of spite.

[โ€“] JackAttack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 weeks ago

I whole heartily agree to a good ole "fuck you"; But I also think that money shouldn't be a requirement but highly encouraged. I'm a hypocrite for this because I don't monetarily support every open source I use. However, for the critical open source I use like 3rd party Android OS, clients for apps like Lemmy, etc. I'm more than happy to donate what I can. Hell, I'd donate to all if I had to resources to. I don't have a good solution but I do think donating (when it can be afforded) should be highly encouraged and something not a lot of people think about/know about/or consider since they may be using it because it's free to begin with.

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