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I think the story in the article is related to a big issue with Homebrew that's not so related to entitlement but to expectations: Homebrew's philosophy and def

I think the story in the article is related to a big issue with Homebrew that's not so related to entitlement but to expectations: Homebrew's philosophy and default behavior is to keep everything updated to the latest version. This makes it OK (sort-of, at least) for day-to-day tools and utilities... but not ideal for systems. I've been personally bitten by this before, where a Python script no longer runs because a library (libssl, I think) was updated to a new non-compatible version and one of Python's modules depended on it. This update in particular was caused by installing something else, unrelated to the program or project. ... So now I know this and try to use different ways of installing my projects' dependencies (and have disabled auto-updates). But a lot of people come across Homebrew when googling "how to run <blank> on MacOS", as it's the default recommendation everywhere. This is not necessarily Homebrew's fault or responsibility... but often there's a communication gap between maintainers who assume everyone should keep software up to date dealing with whatever breaking changes are published and announced and people who live on a completely different schedule and might be wondering why the script they run quarterly no longer works. This issue is not exclusive to Homebrew, I think. Modern development (specially things like node.js / front-end) moves at its own fast pace, and long-term support is not its concern (or not long enough). Hopefully a healthier culture of long-term software maintenance will emerge, with patterns and practices that can be adopted to align everyone's expectations and obligations.

franciscop 4y ago
"Hopefully a healthier culture of long-term software maintenance will emerge" What would the open source author's motivation to do so? This takes effort and money, and I would daresay in no small amounts. And even "the markets" seem to reward software that is constantly improved and has news, heck MANY developers consider metrics like "last release date" to judge whether to use a project or not! Open Source is usually free, so the projects that DO offer LTS are pretty rare and usually well-funded like Node.js on itself, Ubuntu, etc.
- elondaits 4y ago
  There were many steps in the right direction in the past years: - Semantic versioning - The concept of LTS (long term support) versions (e.g. node.js) - Github simplifies forking, submitting patches, or sending issues. - Tests + CI announce when changes break things. Semver is sometimes unreliable, and LTSs are sometimes too short-lived for certain projects... but it's not for lack of motivation from the authors. It's an ongoing process and I expect things to improve. The development of a culture and practices makes it easier for everyone to do the right thing with less effort.
  - lamontcg 4y ago
    LTS is inherently expensive and it is just boring drudgework. TAANSTAAFL. You paying anything for support? SemVer is also absolutely abused to be toxic since there's no clear definitely of what is a bug and what is a feature and what is breaking change and what is just an xkcd-spacebar and it is all ultimately subjective. And while there's always the argument that you just bump a major version every time someone complains, if you're bumping majors every 3 months then someone will complain about that.
- zajio1am 4y ago
  FOSS developers are also FOSS users of other software. So they can be motivated to manage their projects in a way how would like the software they use to be managed. I.e. leading by example.
- 95014_refugee 4y ago
  I can't necessarily speak for anyone else, but for me; at the back end of my career I find myself contributing financially to FOSS projects. This is possible courtesy of more success than I have deserved, facilitated in no small part by the contributions of many other FOSS developers. Paying it forward, I guess? Also, +1 for stop doing it when it stops being fun / worth your time. For anything really.
JohnFen 4y ago
> I've been personally bitten by this before Me too, numerous times, not just with FOSS. And the problem has been getting more common at an ever-increasing rate. This is why I insist that nothing I use automatically updates, and I'm extremely conservative about what I update and when.
- jrochkind1 4y ago
  > This is why I insist that nothing I use automatically updates, and I'm extremely conservative about what I update and when. One trade-off there, of course, is that the number of known security vulnerabilities in your currently installed system will keep growing over time.
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    Yep, I'm totally aware of that. There are no great options here, I'm choosing the lesser of two evils.

franciscop 4y ago

"Hopefully a healthier culture of long-term software maintenance will emerge" What would the open source author's motivation to do so? This takes effort and money, and I would daresay in no small amounts. And even "the markets" seem to reward software that is constantly improved and has news, heck MANY developers consider metrics like "last release date" to judge whether to use a project or not! Open Source is usually free, so the projects that DO offer LTS are pretty rare and usually well-funded like Node.js on itself, Ubuntu, etc.

elondaits 4y ago
There were many steps in the right direction in the past years: - Semantic versioning - The concept of LTS (long term support) versions (e.g. node.js) - Github simplifies forking, submitting patches, or sending issues. - Tests + CI announce when changes break things. Semver is sometimes unreliable, and LTSs are sometimes too short-lived for certain projects... but it's not for lack of motivation from the authors. It's an ongoing process and I expect things to improve. The development of a culture and practices makes it easier for everyone to do the right thing with less effort.
- lamontcg 4y ago
  LTS is inherently expensive and it is just boring drudgework. TAANSTAAFL. You paying anything for support? SemVer is also absolutely abused to be toxic since there's no clear definitely of what is a bug and what is a feature and what is breaking change and what is just an xkcd-spacebar and it is all ultimately subjective. And while there's always the argument that you just bump a major version every time someone complains, if you're bumping majors every 3 months then someone will complain about that.
zajio1am 4y ago
FOSS developers are also FOSS users of other software. So they can be motivated to manage their projects in a way how would like the software they use to be managed. I.e. leading by example.
95014_refugee 4y ago
I can't necessarily speak for anyone else, but for me; at the back end of my career I find myself contributing financially to FOSS projects. This is possible courtesy of more success than I have deserved, facilitated in no small part by the contributions of many other FOSS developers. Paying it forward, I guess? Also, +1 for stop doing it when it stops being fun / worth your time. For anything really.

JohnFen 4y ago

> I've been personally bitten by this before Me too, numerous times, not just with FOSS. And the problem has been getting more common at an ever-increasing rate. This is why I insist that nothing I use automatically updates, and I'm extremely conservative about what I update and when.

jrochkind1 4y ago
> This is why I insist that nothing I use automatically updates, and I'm extremely conservative about what I update and when. One trade-off there, of course, is that the number of known security vulnerabilities in your currently installed system will keep growing over time.
- JohnFen 4y ago
  Yep, I'm totally aware of that. There are no great options here, I'm choosing the lesser of two evils.