Linux @lemmy.ml petsoi @discuss.tchncs.de 2mo ago

Man pages maintenance suspended

lwn.net Linux man-pages project maintenance [LWN.net]

From: Alejandro Colomar <alx-AT-kernel.org>

Hi all,

As you know, I've been maintaining the Linux man-pages project for the last 4 years as a voluntary. I've been doing it in my free time, and no company has sponsored that work at all. At the moment, I cannot sustain this work economically any more, and will temporarily and indefinitely stop working on this project. If any company has interests in the future of the project, I'd welcome an offer to sponsor my work here; if so, please let me know.

Have a lovely day! Alex

47 comments

https://xkcd.com/2347/
This sounds like the sort of infrastructure project the Linux Foundation should be supporting.
- They only invest in the fancy marketable new age shit, and well, corporate rejects (Tizen, MeeGo, etc)
In my opinion it's criminal just how often this happens. Big business making obscene profit off the back of volunteer work like yours and many others across the OSS community.
- Germany has a Sovereign Tech Fund for exactly this, and while it's not perfect, it's one of the better uses of my tax euros.
  
  Didn't they suspend, or greatly hinder, that recently?
- It's criminal to let someone do the thing he actively volunteers to do? It's criminal to use software that someone intentionally puts out into the world as free?
  
  If you're willing yo do something for free, people are going to let you 🤷‍♂️
  
  It's criminal the propaganda that lead people like this developer to believe they should do the work for free, and not worry, because the corporate world always gives back :)
Just, um, don't invite that guy who helped out with the xz tools...
Everything needs to be slapped with the AGPL. Fuck corporate America
- Creative Commons-BY-NC would be better.
  
  Alright we should use that then
- AGPL on documentation? What would that do?
- AGPL doesn't help. AGPL authors are explicitly pro-corporate use
  
  I thought AGPL was the more restrictive version of GPL? Which license should we use so that corporates need to pay?
My old employer used to have people on staff just for technical writing. Some of that writing became the man pages you know, and some of it was 'just' documentation for commercial products - ID management and the like.

Then we sued IBM for breach of contract, and if you ask anyone about it they'll parrot the IBM PR themes exactly, as their PR work was brutal. People in Usenet and Forums were very mean, and the company decided to stop offering much of the stuff that it was for free. It was very 'f this'.

If man pages needed a volunteer to maintain, I know why ours tapered off.
Things like this make me wish I was a tech CEO. I'd totally be the guy ensuring we give back to projects if I was.
- That is part of why you're not a tech CEO. You're not supposed to have compassion! No investor would want that.
  
  P.S. This is an attack on CEOs and investors, not on you :)
- Nah, the investors don't see it as a benefit to your growth to pay people you don't have to
  
  10k for a company making millions annually is nothing, 1% or less. But split between some of these projects, especially the less appreciated or funded ones, can be life changing.
  
  But you're unfortunately right
- Unfortunately, people like this don't become CEOs.
- is this sarcasm?
My company will let me purchase software, but it won't let me donate to FOSS. Budgeting says it's "unnecessary". So screwed up. (A tiny amount money on my end, but still, it would be nice to help out a little.)
He absolutely deserves it.
Quick, print them all out now before they're gone!
Ahaha! It is already bad!

47 comments