Comment on Open Source Developers Are Exhausted, Unpaid, and Ready to Walk Away
rockstar1215@lemmy.world 2 weeks agoThe article and discussion here is about open source software which is not free software. Thats where the problem lies it is assumed that open source software has be free.
elbarto777@lemmy.world 1 week ago
But the article is not talking about this scenario. They’re specifically talking about open source software that’s also free software:
So it’s perfectly fine for some users to expect the software to be free.
The real problem is that some project owners have a sense of duty to maintain their creations no matter what, leading to burnout, which is the point of the article. The article also details ways to fix it. Some of those involve the users being proactive (e.g. taking the initiative to donate consistently), but ultimately it’s up to the owner to take some action. Like I mentioned, if I publish some code for free, I don’t mind my users to expect that my software will always be free. But if they think I’m going to lose sleep trying to meet their demands without compensation, welp, they are dreaming.