The xz fiasco has shown how a dependence on unpaid volunteers can cause major problems. Trillion dollar corporations like Microsoft expect free and urgent support from ffmpeg volunteers. They posted on a bug tracker full of volunteers that their issue is "high priority". After politely requesting a support contract from Microsoft for long term maintenance, they offered a one-time payment of a few thousand dollars instead. Full story here https://x.com/ffmpeg/status/1775178803129602500?s=46
@artandtechnic that was 11 months ago, I don’t think so Microsoft paid anything despite they received the help in a timely manner from unpaid volunteers. Shaming them publicly becomes the necessary.
@nixCraft If one believes the FFmpeg “story,” then it seems that the FFmpeg team unilaterally - and highly unprofessionally - decided to publish the details of a private negotiation on a social media site. What company would enter into a support contract with people who act in that manner?
Microsoft is the same business that is investing 100 billion dollars in openai for generative AI to build the giant AI supercomputer and steal every content created ever without paying anyone anything. They refuse to buy support contracts for open source projects where they used project work exclusively to build the MS Teams product. They are abusing the system. This shaming is necessary.
@nixCraft I think by now most people have seen XKCD 2347 come up repeatedly along with the xz issue. ( https://xkcd.com/2347/ for those who still missed it.) A while back when it was initially posted I couldn't help but to make an edit that I think seems apropos now...