The Beer Driven Devs

What does open-source owe you?

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In this episode, Matt and Liam dive into one of the spiciest debates in the software world: What do open source maintainers actually owe their community? From unpaid labour to entitlement, we explore the tension between contributors and consumers in the open source ecosystem.

We discuss:

  • The expectations placed on maintainers and why they burn out
  • Whether open source projects should come with service-level guarantees
  • The blurred line between community contributions and unpaid work
  • Real-world examples of OSS drama, gratitude, and frustration
  • How to support the projects you rely on, without being “that person”

    • If you’ve ever used an open source library, contributed to one, or found yourself waiting on an issue fix, this episode is for you.

    Any Likes 👍, Shares 📣, Subscriptions 🔔, and Love ❤️ go a long way to helping us continue this podcast.

    Cheers! 🍻

    🔗 Tonight’s Links 🔗

    • Open Source, Open Mind: The Cost of Free Software - Dylan Beattie - NDC Oslo 2024

      • 🍻 Tonight’s Drinks 🍻

      Matt - Soda water
      Liam - 🥃 Dalwhinnie (one of Matt’s favourites too!)

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      The Beer Driven DevsBy Matt Goldman & Liam Elliott