Post

Every time an OSS maintainer adds a "funding" notice to their post-install, deletes their package, or doesn't merge a bug fix, and "the community" gets angry and calls it a bad action, that's the problem.

Carl Lerche@carllerche.com

I'm just going to say it, I really don't like the "how do we make OSS sustainable" framing. OSS is already sustainable. The only thing not sustainable is users expecting a free lunch (support, LTS, bug fixes, ...). As a user, you are responsible for your OSS usage. Fork/patch if you need to.

Carl Lerche

@carllerche.com

3 May

The problem is that we, "the community," have an expectation from devs who make their code open. And no, it's not on them to put disclaimers in their README.

Carl Lerche

@carllerche.com

3 May

OSS authors are not businesses. Don't expect anything, and take ownership of the OSS you pull in and use.

Carl Lerche

@carllerche.com

If you want support, pay for it. And no, donating $20/mo, is not the answer. It costs more to take an OSS project and turn it into a product that businesses can depend on.

3/5/26, 6:44 pm0 reposts0 likes

Carl Lerche

@carllerche.com

3 May

It's fine to highlight technical issues and crowdsource a knowledge base on the state of each dependency. But remember: OSS is published WITHOUT WARRANTY.