Open Source Regrets  ## Metadata - Author: [[The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source]] - Full Title: Open Source Regrets - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/5236c4f3-b3e8-4a55-b4c5-fd6ced2b1eba ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Comparison Loop In Tech Wealth** - Ben Stansel shows people compare upward endlessly through wealth metrics. - The Job quote contrasts that with accepting life's transience over constant comparison. Transcript: Jerod Santo I'm in an existential mood today, so here's two thoughts that were impressed on me over the weekend, juxtaposed. The first thought comes from a recent Ben Stansel essay in which he does the math on the gobsmacking amount of money floating around Silicon Valley these days, and how everyone does The math to see how much everyone else is worth. Ben concludes, quote, we don't do the math to measure ourselves. We do the math to compare ourselves, end quote. So true, but that's just the setup. The money quote is a footnote to that sentence. Quote, the recent grad is troubled by how much the designer who got the job they want makes. The designer is troubled by how much the engineer makes. The engineer by the researcher. The researcher by the founder that got acquired. The acquired founder by the founder who acquired them. The founder by the billionaire. The billionaire by Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos by Elon Musk. And Elon Musk by the Recent Grad. End quote. The second thought I'd like to share comes from a not-at man named Job. After receiving news that he lost everything to raiders and a mighty wind, Job said, quote, Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. ([Time 0:00:14](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c1ee93e3-b292-4951-8b56-560f3aa6165d)) - **Two Decades Of FOSS Left Personal Regret** - A maintainer spent 20 years on FOSS and realized they'd prioritized praise from strangers over close relationships. - They said 1% of that time invested in loved ones would've made them much happier. Transcript: Jerod Santo Open source regrets. A recent Akron News Ask HN thread piqued my interest. Maybe it will yours as well. Here's the question. Open source is usually seen as a win for learning, visibility, and the community. But have you ever regretted it? Maybe it became a burden to maintain, attracted the wrong users, or got used in ways you didn't expect? Would love to hear your experience, good or bad. Now, I'm about as pro-open source as devs come, but only a purist would say it's always an unadulterated win. This thread is filled with people sharing their open source regrets, which are worth hearing about. Here's one, for instance. Quote, when I was about 14, I open sourced a script to auto-configure X11's XRander. It was pretty lousy, had several bugs. I mentioned it on a KDE mailing list and a KDE core contributor told me it was embarrassing code and to kill myself. I took it pretty hard and didn't contribute to KDE or X11 ever again. Probably took me about a year to build up the desire to code again. End quote. That was a singular event for this person, but still, just awful. Here's another one, which is more longitudinal. Quote, To be honest, I do regret it. After 20 years of working on FOSS projects, I've invested enormous amounts of time, effort, and money into these and other free slash open source initiatives. It was enjoyable initially. There's something addictive about receiving praise from strangers and unknown communities. You keep going because it feels good and you develop a sense of moral superiority. But years later, when the people closest to you are no longer around, you pause and reflect on how much energy you devoted to random strangers instead of those who shared your life. If I had invested even 1% of the time and effort I put into FOSS projects into my relationships with loved ones, they would have been so much happier. Now I'm left wondering what the hell I was doing all those years. ([Time 0:01:33](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5cd83af8-c262-405a-a841-41e8463d5e6f)) - **GitHub CEO Leaves To Found Again** - Thomas Domke is leaving GitHub to return to founding startups after his decade at Microsoft/GitHub. - He framed the move as following his 'startup roots' and a desire to build again. Transcript: Jerod Santo GitHub's latest CEO says farewell. Thomas Domke is stepping down as GitHub CEO so he can build another startup. In his announcement post, Thomas says, quote, over a decade ago, my family and I made the leap to move from Germany to the United States after the sale of my startup to Microsoft. In the years since, I've had the privilege of working with many exceptional human beings, including hubbers, Microsofties, customers, partners, our GitHub stars, open source maintainers, And developers around the world who've helped us shape GitHub. Still, after all this time, my startup roots have been tugging on me and I've decided to leave GitHub to become a founder again. End quote. Thomas took the reins in 2021 when Nat Friedman stepped down after taking the reins in 2018 when Chris Wanstraw stepped down after the Microsoft acquisition. Who will take the reins next? We don't know yet. ([Time 0:03:21](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5f675f56-0845-4890-8aa6-aea4da2fa89c)) - **HTTP/2 Introduces Exclusive Security Risks** - James Kettle demonstrates HTTP/2 brings new, implementation‑specific security threats. - These can enable H2-only desync attacks against high-profile sites. Transcript: Jerod Santo HTTP2, the sequel is always worse. James Kittle breaks down HTTP2 from a security perspective and finds it breaks down pretty easily. Quote, HTTP2 is easily mistaken for a transport layer protocol that can be swapped in with zero security implications for the website behind it. In this paper, I'll introduce multiple new classes of HTTP2 exclusive threats caused by both implementation flaws and RFC imperfections. End quote. James shows how these flaws enable H2 exclusive desync attacks with case studies targeting some pretty high profile websites. ([Time 0:04:12](https://share.snipd.com/snip/751c3bc0-6029-4223-9833-b0f13bfd00e9)) - **PHP 8.5 Ships A Native Pipe Operator** - PHP 8.5 will add a native pipe operator in November to simplify chaining. - The feature draws from Hack and other functional languages to avoid library overhead. Transcript: Jerod Santo PHP 8.5 adds pipe operator. The pipe operator is the coolest. And PHP is going to have it this November when version 8.5 ships. Here's some history. The pipe operator appears in many languages, mostly in the functional world. F-sharp has essentially the exact same operator, as does OCaml. Elixir has a slightly fancier version, which we considered but ultimately decided against for now. And numerous PHP libraries exist in the wild that offer similar capability with many extra expensive steps. The story for PHP pipes, though, begins with Hack slash HHVM Facebook's PHP fork knee-competitive implementation. Hack included many features beyond what PHP 5 of the day offered. Many of them eventually ended up in later PHP versions. One of its features was a unique spin on a pipe operator. End quote. Sarah Goldman started the effort to bring hacks, pipes, to PHP directly in 2016. Fast forward to 2025 and Larry Garfield finally got it done. Meanwhile, JavaScript's pipe operator is still a stage two draft. ([Time 0:06:04](https://share.snipd.com/snip/603078e9-a874-4f01-8190-e1c8aa30404c)) - **Copyright Suit Could Bankrupt AI Firms** - A certified class action could expose Anthropic to massive per-claimant damages and force settlements. - Such a precedent risks financially crippling the entire generative AI industry. Transcript: Jerod Santo Many of our conversations around the future of tech after the AI upheaval have included a sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit, big, but, you know, like, but, something could happen That radically changes the AI course we're currently on. Turns out the largest copyright class action suit of all times might prove to be that Calipidgian butt we've been alluding to. Quote, AI industry groups are urging an appeals court to block what they say is the largest copyright class action ever certified. They've warned that a single lawsuit raised by three authors over Anthropics AI training now threatens to financially ruin the entire AI industry if up to 7 million claimants end up Joining the litigation and forcing a settlement. End quote. If the appeals court denies Anthropic's petition, they could face a $150,000 fine for each of those 7 million claimants whose works span a century of publishing history. Quote, confronted with such extreme potential damages, Anthropic may lose its right to raise valid defenses of its AI training, deciding it would be more prudent to settle, the company Argued. And that could set an alarming precedent considering all the other lawsuits generative AI companies face over training on copyrighted materials. End quote. Yikes. ([Time 0:07:11](https://share.snipd.com/snip/bc24b0fd-2242-462a-a6b4-4a8314ca2275))