Open source sustainability requires corporate action, not charity: Igalia engineer proposes concrete pledges to compensate unpaid maintainers

The New Stack is a publication covering trends and technologies in cloud-native development, DevOps, and software delivery. Developers can learn about containerization, Kubernetes, and cloud computing, as well as explore topics such as microservices architecture, serverless computing, and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines.

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Open source sustainability faces critical challenges including maintainer burnout, lack of compensation, corporate exploitation, and diversity gaps. Igalia engineer Marga Manterola proposes two concrete solutions: the Open Source Pledge ($2,000 per developer annually to dependencies) and the Open Source Employment Pledge (50% of one developer's time per 20 employees, free from company control). The vision is professional teams with steady salaries supporting maintainers, enabling junior developers to progress naturally into maintainer roles.

Is Open Source in Trouble?