Software Maxims
softwaremaxims.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2019
Thomas Depierre writes about open source economics, maintainers, supply chain security and developer tooling.
What HN saysHN commenters often cite "I am not a supplier" to argue maintainers owe users nothing, and call the developer tooling article a great read.
16HN people shared it
6linked it in comments
21stories submitted
187story points
3 months agolast shared
2019people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1I am not a supplier (2022)7 people · 156 points · first shared 2022 · 37 comments on HN
- 2The Hobbyist Maintainer Economic Gravity Well4 people · 4 points · first shared 2026 · 1 comments on HN
- 3FOSS Won and Why It Matters3 people · 10 points · first shared 2025 · 1 comments on HN
- 4You Are All on the Hobbyists Maintainers' Turf Now3 people · 7 points · first shared 2024 · 1 comments on HN
- 5Reviewing AI Code Is Not a Viable Argument2 people · 3 points · first shared 2026 · 1 comments on HN
- 6You can Support Maintainers without SBOM2 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 7The Economics of Developer Tooling2 people · 1 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 8Can I have some DX too?1 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 9We Need More Process Engineering in Software1 people · 1 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 10The Cloud Is Not Optional1 people · 1 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 11Resume1 people · first shared 2019
What HN people wrote when they linked it
CRConrad · 2024-04-07
2024 (kind of) follow-up:
https://www.softwaremaxims.com/blog/open-source-hobbyists-turf
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39910558
derekkraan · 2023-06-07
This is a great read. I think we can learn as much (or more) from the failures as we can from the successes [1].
Developer tooling is also just a very difficult business to be in [2].
[1] https://codecodeship.com/blog/2023-04-19-parker-selbert
[2] https://www.softwaremaxims.com/blog/economics-developer-tools
mnau · 2024-06-26
> Report any problems found. This makes usage robust and supports open source support and development.
Project maintainers/developers are not free labor. If you need a proper solution to any problem, make a contract and pay them. This idea that someone will magically solve your problem for free needs to die.
https://www.softwaremaxims.com/blog/not-a-supplier
rs999gti · 2024-06-14
> supply chain security
https://www.softwaremaxims.com/blog/not-a-supplier
"You are not buying from a supplier, you are a raccoon digging through dumpsters for free code."
scovetta · 2024-05-12
Obligatory article, "I am not a supplier.": <https://www.softwaremaxims.com/blog/not-a-supplier>
Folks that disagree with a maintainer's actions are generally free to fork the project and maintain an alternative -- that's one of the primary features of open source software. And if end users prefer that new fork to the original maintainer's version, that'll probably be the one that survives.
But maintainers have no obligation to make their end users happy.
di4na · 2019-04-01
Location: France, Jura
Remote: Yes
Willing to relocate: No
Technologies: Elixir, Postgres, AWS, Erlang, React
Résumé/CV: https://www.softwaremaxims.com/resume
Email: [email protected]