Open source maintainers are really feeling the squeeze

State Of Open Recent events have brought the plight of open source maintainers front and center, but the problems were brewing for many years.

The theme cropped up repeatedly during 2025's State Of Open Conference, with speakers from tech giants and volunteer maintainers laying out the challenges. Much of the open source ecosystem relies on volunteers putting in too many hours for too little support and the cracks are growing.

four hours a month... does not come close to meeting the demands of users and the "How hard can it be?" brigade. Maintainers are undoubtedly under pressure, and many have either quit or are considering doing so...

This week, the lead of the Asahi Linux project – a Linux distribution for Apple silicon – Hector Martin, abruptly quit, citing factors including developer burnout and demanding users.

Jamie Tanna, who gave himself the title of "Tired Maintainer" put it simply: "Being an ...