Free as in Burned Out: who really pays for Open Source Software

Speaker: Margarita Manterola

Track: Human Factors

Type: Long talk (45 minutes)

Room: Aula Magna - FBCB

Time: Jul 23 (Thu): 14:00

Duration: 0:45

Open Source powers nearly everything in our digital lives, from webservers to smartphones. In many ways, Open Source has “won.” But can we celebrate that victory while so many maintainers, including many Debian Developers and Maintainers, are burning out, while users and companies keep depending on their unpaid labor? Debian knows this tension intimately. From the recurring reality of orphaned packages and MIA developers, to the xz-utils backdoor, a stark reminder of what happens when critical infrastructure rests on a single volunteer’s unpaid, unsupported labor, this isn’t an abstract industry problem. It’s our day-to-day.

In this talk, we’ll take a critical look at how Open Source has been funded (or not), why many existing models like corporate sponsorship, donations, open core or paid support keep falling short, and what new paths might actually work. We’ll also sit with the uncomfortable questions specific to a project like Debian: What happens when volunteer DDs and corporate-sponsored DDs work side by side on the same packages? Is it time for an Open Source tax? Would paying volunteers motivate or demotivate them, and who would decide who gets paid?

This isn’t just a talk about money. It’s a call to rethink what sustainability really means for Debian and for Open Source at large, and how we build a future that doesn’t run on burnout.