50 for FOSS needs your help • Minimum Viable Blog

tl;dr: I’m organizing a monthly community event in support of open-source software. You can join up at 50forFOSS.org.

How it started

It all began with a Mastodon post:

Mastodon post by @isaaclyman@toot.cafe reading: Thinking of starting a “50 for FOSS” pledge campaign. If you: - Work in tech - Can comfortably pay all your bills - Regularly use free/open-source software Then on the 5th of every month, you choose a piece of software you appreciate and find a way to pay $50 for it. Ko-fi. GitHub sponsorship. OSS collectives. Open an issue in the repo or email the maintainer if you have to. We have to insist on paying for the software we use. #programming #opensource #foss

This was my most popular Mastodon post ever. By the end of the day it had been boosted across 28 instances. A lot of people must have been feeling the same thing I was: an urge to protect the fragile and extraordinary world of free, open-source software.

This wasn’t the first time I’d brought it up. A year ago, I commented:

Mastodon post by @isaaclyman@toot.cafe reading: It seems to me (without any hard data) that there's been a continuous wave of #opensource abandonment since COVID. All around us there are solo maintainers playing the role of Atlas in millions of corporate codebases and not getting a cent for it—in fact, they're mostly getting yelled at by users who file far more issues than PRs. Community-maintained open-source software is a complete peculiarity, inexplicable from an economic perspective.

For years, I’ve been concerned about the state of Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS). I depend on it for work, entertainment, and productivity at home. But I’m constantly finding out that libraries in my ’node_modules’ can’t be updated because they’ve been abandoned, or an app I just learned about is already obsolete because the creator burned out, or a project I want to use isn’t compatible with my hardware because the maintainer doesn’t have time to work on it.

Think about all the open-source software you use every day:

Applications on your computer.
Web apps you access online.
Plugins and extensions in your web browser.
Mods for your video games.
Apps on your smartphone.
Add-ons for your productivity and notetaking tools.
Web services on your home server or NAS.
Dependency files in your code repositories.
Even the Linux distribution you use.

FOSS is an incredibly valuable resource, something that’s totally unique to our industry. But its continued existence isn’t guaranteed. We have to do more to keep it alive.

The future of truly great software is in principled, counterculture communities. And we can start building those communities today.

The pledge

50 for FOSS is a monthly pledge that anyone can sign.

Here’s how it works: on the first Friday of each month, pick a FOSS project and give the maintainer(s) $50.

Then, if you’d like, share your donation on social media with the hashtag #50forFOSS.

There’s no middleman, no nonprofit organization, no gatekeepers or committees. It’s just you, your wallet, and a FOSS maintainer who’s about to have a very good day.

Why do I believe this will work? Because I know there are millions of software developers out there who, like me, truly appreciate the open-source work of their peers—but, like me, haven’t known how to show it.

50 for FOSS is about open-source community and appreciation. It’s a habit that’s easy to adopt. And for some maintainers, it will make all the difference in the world.

How do I join?

Visit 50forFOSS.org to learn more, get all your questions answered, and sign the pledge.

Once a month, I’ll send out an email reminder and spotlight a couple of open-source projects the community loves. It will be up to you to choose a project and send them your donation.

The first ever 50 for FOSS Day will be October 4, 2024.

I’ll see you there.

#50forFOSS