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the problem is not that it’s free software (free to fork, free to study, free to modify) run by a rag tag group of maintainers - the problem is it’s the literal backbone of all modern digital infrastructure and should be considered “too important to fail”. So yeah, when rsync vibes, it’s concerning.

What you’re describing is the tragedy of the commons. I remember working on upstream kubernetes at VMware and leadership was all too willing to pass off burden onto other maintainers or companies because ”free as in puppy” and Google, Red Hat, or some other corp owned that part of the stack

At some point, an important open and free project stops being “just a project” and becomes a public good needing the same care and planning as other widely used/distributed utilities: we’ve yet to expand the open source model to encompass that.

Do not misunderstand me: maintainers and their projects owe no one anything - corporations that have consumed and consumed without giving back have created the tragedy, refuse to bolster engineering efforts, and need to make provide support

as a maintainer I absolutely disagree. that is just one view, and it results in a type of society I don't even particularly want to exist in if you don't want to have that responsibility, don't release software