Open Source Software Maintenance Is Burning Out Everyone: Is There a Solution?

[ECWAlfie47]

Critical infrastructure runs on open source software maintained by volunteers who get paid nothing. Log4j OpenSSL left-pad. Every few years we discover a vulnerability in something millions of people depend on and realize the person maintaining it in their spare time can barely keep up. The entire tech economy is built on unpaid labor. Companies profit. Users benefit. The maintainers burn out. We know this is happening. Companies throw money at the problem occasionally but without structural change it continues. The economics are broken. Either companies need to fund maintainers properly or we need to accept that critical infrastructure will have vulnerabilities.

[HitmanMatt53]

This is what happens when you build for free. You get free-tier maintenance. Supply equals demand