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"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 mo

"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.

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.