Yet another developer of open source software has tired of companies utilizing the code he helps maintain without giving anything back to support the project.
On Tuesday, Christofer Dutz, creator of Apache PLC4X, said he will stop providing community support for the software if corporate users fail to step up and open their wallets.
“The industry seems to like using PLC4X and open-source in general, but doesn’t seem to be willing to support the people working on it,” he wrote in a post to GitHub. “So, I will stop providing free community support for PLC4X.”
Dutz is one of six listed maintainers of Apache PLC4X, a set of libraries for communicating with programmable logic controllers – industry-specific devices involved in the automation of various manufacturing tasks. His demand for support exists outside his involvement with the Apache Foundation; he maintains a separate IT consultancy called c-ware to help companies design and implement PLC4X software to suit their respective businesses.
C-ware has launched several crowdfunding initiatives to adapt Apache PLC4X to Python, Rust, and TypeScript, among other enhancements, but these have barely attracted any funding commitments.
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Source: Open source maintainer hits out at corporate freeloaders • The Register
With log4j fresh in memory it’s pretty clear that this widespread use of FOSS without any money going the way of the non-university funded maintainers is not sustainable
Robin Edgar
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