The people holding up the internet
16 hours ago
- Many critical open-source projects, from timezone data to compression tools, are maintained by just one or two people.
- Maintainers often work unpaid or with minimal funding, and some face burnout, legal issues, or security threats.
- Security incidents like Shellshock, Heartbleed, and the xz backdoor highlight risks when infrastructure relies on a few volunteers.
- Examples include Paul Eggert (timezone file), Lasse Collin (xz), Todd Miller (sudo), DRC (libjpeg-turbo), and Daniel Stenberg (curl).
- Some projects received funding after crises (e.g., OpenSSL after Heartbleed), but many maintainers still lack sponsorship.