Thomas Depierre
Software engineer and open source maintainer, writing at softwaremaxims.com. His 2022 essay "I am not a supplier" is one of the most widely cited maintainer responses to the software-supply-chain security agenda, and he argues that most proposals for fixing open source are written by people who do not understand who actually maintains it.
Thomas Depierre did not write this page.
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Their wordsFOSS solve that problem far more than it solves “we don’t want to pay”. Most corporations would be surprised by how cheap it would cost them to pay for the FOSS software they use.
↗How FOSS Won and Why It Matterssoftwaremaxims.com 1st of 4 in this piece
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Their wordsYou cannot go back. If the solution you offer recreate any of the Supply Chain framework problem, then your solution is Dead On Arrival.
↗How FOSS Won and Why It Matterssoftwaremaxims.com 2nd of 4 in this piece
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Their wordsMaking licenses suddenly commercial for big entities? You are forcing people to go back through the Procurement process. They will shift over time back to a FOSS solution, even if it is less good.
↗How FOSS Won and Why It Matterssoftwaremaxims.com 3rd of 4 in this piece
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Their wordsIt significantly lowered the bar to production. It is how we got the whole society to run on software. If you make it harder for hobbyists maintainers, you are going to crash society.
↗How FOSS Won and Why It Matterssoftwaremaxims.com 4th of 4 in this piece
- 20 months earlier
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Their wordsIt means that anything you offer must fit in 1h per month. That is it. And if it does not, if it needs more involvement than that, we, as maintainers, will not do it. At all.
↗You Are All On The Hobbyists Maintainers’ Turf Nowsoftwaremaxims.com 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsIf your plans for open-source sustainability or security do not align first and foremost with this population it is not going to achieve anything.
↗You Are All On The Hobbyists Maintainers’ Turf Nowsoftwaremaxims.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsThis is not the same world that you were part of. The complexity is off the chart; we are hidden layers and layers under the scaffolding. And we are used everywhere.
↗You Are All On The Hobbyists Maintainers’ Turf Nowsoftwaremaxims.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 15 months earlier
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Their wordsWe are not suppliers. All the people writing and maintaining these projects, we are not suppliers. We do not have a business relationship with all these organisations.
↗I am not a suppliersoftwaremaxims.com 1st of 4 in this piece
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Their wordsHell even worse, a lot of the libraries that underpin the fabric of what we all call the digital economy have trouble getting enough money to pay for food.
↗I am not a suppliersoftwaremaxims.com 2nd of 4 in this piece
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Their wordsIf you use this, I owe you nothing. At all. We have no relationship. I put this up online on the condition that if you use it, all the risks are on you.
↗I am not a suppliersoftwaremaxims.com 3rd of 4 in this piece
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Their wordsBut to do that, I am going to have to become a supplier. Which means you are going to have to start to pay me. A fair price, that we can negotiate. Under a different license.
↗I am not a suppliersoftwaremaxims.com 4th of 4 in this piece