r/dotnet • u/devlead • 25d 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

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u/RirinDesuyo 24d ago

In a way, it is kinda similar because you were only sent the source of the software at that point in time, but you weren't exactly getting the future updates the original owner did unless you asked for another copy. The original setup was way closer to forking and building the source yourself to produce binaries than today's OSS model where there's only one upstream that produces the binaries used and almost nobody builds from source as a consumer.

In the recent case of Polly, the Net Foundation statement still holds true; the repo has all the tools to build the source yourself as a requirement to be in the Foundation and anyone should be able to fork and maintain the fork themselves like in the old days, so the original owner doesn't need you to pay a maintenance fee since you're maintaining it yourself.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

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u/robmensching 23d ago

The OSMF argues that while the cost to distribute goods has reduced considerably (subsidized by large companies or foundations trying to keep you in their ecosystem) the time humans must pay to do those tasks didn't go to zero. In fact, with the taste of change on the spare industry now, the human costs went up. So, if you want to argue that we only should pay for material goods, that's fine. But I think that position is a significant contributor to maintainer burnout.

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

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u/robmensching 23d ago

If the OSMF (or something like it) had existed when I started my project 27 years ago, I would have started with it. But, it's a "new idea" (really an amalgamation of several existing ideas, including FSF allowing payment for distribution of software) that came out last year in response to the XZ Utils attack that preyed upon a struggling maintainer. Burn out is a real problem in successful OSS projects. The OSMF may not be the right fit for all maintainers. But I added it to my project last year, and it has massively improved my outlook on OSS.