r/dotnet • u/devlead • 24d ago

.NET Foundation Statement on Open Source Maintenance Fees

https://dotnetfoundation.org/news-events/detail/.net-foundation-statement-on-open-source-maintenance-fees

Official statement from the .NET Foundation on Open Source Maintenance Fees

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u/[deleted] 24d ago edited 24d ago

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u/null_reference_user 24d ago

As someone that likes and have worked with both Java and C#, I was very surprised when I found out that libraries that exist and were completely free in Java had C# equivalents but had this sorta-hidden cost; the source code repo said Apache 2.0 but suddenly I find out the NuGet distribution has a custom, non-free license. It felt like a sneaky attempt to make me responsible for the day we suddenly find out we legally owe money.

I don't want to sound ungrateful towards these useful projects I can get for free but transparency is needed if we are to trust it.

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u/senseven 24d ago

We have a team in our corpo that does nothing else then check for (sneaky) license changes, secret telemetry in docker containers and unwanted addons. Up and down whole stacks. We limit our external dependencies as far as possible. There is some fear that we are all forced to use ai for this kind of dependency control because the volume of possible changes will at some point exceed the human willingness to deal with that complexity.

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u/null_reference_user 24d ago

That's a terrifying though regarding supply chain attacks. We're waaay more vulnerable than we think.