I know a couple of comments have mentioned this already, but this apparently grows out of him being in a pickle financially at the moment and resenting the time he has put into doing free work: https://twitter.com/marak/status/1320465599319990272
I'm sympathetic. I don't have any funds to spare to help him out. I'm chronically broke myself.
I've done lots of nice things for people over the years for free. A lot of the things I'm good at are inherently hard to monetize (most moderating positions are unpaid, for example).
I was homeless for years. I still write about homelessness and try to provide other forms of support for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Some of the things that would help:
1. Universal health care coverage in the US. ("free"/provided by the government)
2. Fix our housing policy issues such that more small housing in walkable neighborhoods becomes available.
If those two things were done, a single adult could potentially support themselves on part-time minimum wage work while renting a single room until they get back on their feet. That's currently not feasible.
I am not against open source. (I just submitted my first pull request to open source a few hours ago.) But I do recognize that there are systemic issues and we need to make it easier for people to make their lives work so they don't wind up all pissed off over what they have done for free when something goes sideways.
I don't really care. I'm not even going to read your link.
The reason I don't care is because I remain dirt poor and I've spent years trying to figure out how to earn an adequate income legitimately while being called a "whiner" and told to shut up about my financial problems and all this crap and it has a long history of making me feel suicidal.
So if you have someone "doing good works" -- like contributing for free to open source -- who cannot figure out how to make ends meet and the entire world is happy to use their stuff for free while not giving a rat's ass about their lack of an income, that alone can drive you crazy.
So I just don't care. At all. Who set the fire is of zero importance to me and has no bearing whatsoever on the fact that "We have systemic issues that we need to address."
I'm sympathetic. I don't have any funds to spare to help him out. I'm chronically broke myself.
I've done lots of nice things for people over the years for free. A lot of the things I'm good at are inherently hard to monetize (most moderating positions are unpaid, for example).
I was homeless for years. I still write about homelessness and try to provide other forms of support for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Some of the things that would help:
1. Universal health care coverage in the US. ("free"/provided by the government)
2. Fix our housing policy issues such that more small housing in walkable neighborhoods becomes available.
If those two things were done, a single adult could potentially support themselves on part-time minimum wage work while renting a single room until they get back on their feet. That's currently not feasible.
I am not against open source. (I just submitted my first pull request to open source a few hours ago.) But I do recognize that there are systemic issues and we need to make it easier for people to make their lives work so they don't wind up all pissed off over what they have done for free when something goes sideways.