Open-Source Exploitation - David Whitney - NDC London 2024

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14246943

I found this talk really helpful in understanding the broader context of open source's recent difficulties (see xz vulnerability, Redis license change, etc.)

I am one of the people who has immensely enjoyed using open source at a personal level (and have done a tiny bit of contributing). I've seen and read a lot about burn out in open source and the difficulties of independent open source maintainers trying to make a living off their work while companies make billions using that work and only ever interact with the maintainer to demand more unpaid labor. But I've never seriously considered how we got to this point or what it might take to move to a more sustainable world of thriving, fair open source.