3 ms·
> Many, many people treat open-source projects like consumer products. To me, this linr of argument completely misses the point. It's entirely immaterial how
by geezerjay 8y ago
> Many, many people treat open-source projects like consumer products.
To me, this linr of argument completely misses the point.
It's entirely immaterial how a FLOSS project is treated. This problem is essentially an identity hijacking problem. The community trusted the old maintainer, but then he screwed up by enabling an attacker to essentially take over his identity and thus create and exploit a major vulnerability in his behalf.
- wpietri 8y agoIt is not immaterial. Projects are run by human beings, and economics does not cease to exist once a computer is involved. People's expectations were out of line for what they were paying. I also think the words "community" and "trust" are being badly abused here. A community is a relationship of mutuality. Most of the people affected here never did a thing. They were leeches, not participants. A healthy community would have looked at the guy laboring overtime for free and said, "Hey, buddy, let's split that load up." And most of the people who benefited from his work didn't even know his name. They didn't trust him; they trusted the system. He owed those people nothing. He gave them more than that: a good-faith effort to find a new maintainer.