They were doing this all by themselves?!
Well, "maintainer" is usually a single person job. They didn't write all the code or whatever, just were the gatekeeper to what got added and making sure shit works.
So I mean, it's not great nobody is stepping up, but it's also not like they magiced up the entirety of linux's wifi support single handed, either.
Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/2347/
Btw, you can embedd the image like that:
It will look like that:
Oddly xkcd's image has no signature or other information identifying the creator.
Unless you get one of the day's 10'000, it'll be recognised by any tech people.
There's lots of developers contributing to the wifi drivers, there's just no "lead maintainer" now
The article isn't entirely clear. I get the impression that the person in question may have been the sole maintainer for some hardware-agnostic parts of the wireless stack (which I'd expect to only need active development when a new standard gets greenlighted; should be bugfixes the rest of the time), co-maintainer of the drivers for some atheros chipsets, and the general oversight/coordination guy, but there are other developers working on specific drivers.
Ethernet cable intensifies
I hope they invent wireless ethernet
Maybe we can put it on the open 2.4GHz spectrum and encrypt it with RC4.
Ethernet is a layer 2 protocol. It can run on many different mediums and cable types.
Perhaps not relevant to the conversation, but if you use and enjoy any FOSS product, donate money to the maintainers when you can
What is up with all the maintainers stepping down lately?
Original creators and maintainers are hitting retirement age.
And not many good younger people are available to take the mantle.
This is the long-term cost of how persnickety FOSS maintainers are when it comes to accepting outside contributions to their work.
This is the long-term cost of how persnickety FOSS maintainers are when it comes to accepting outside contributions to their work.
This is the long-term cost of shoving every teenager through python classes in highschool for 12 years and calling them developers.
This is the long-term cost of allowing them to continue down a path that was set by corporate interests and training them to use "the next hot thing".
This is the long-term cost of not slapping the Jr's hard enough when they don't do as they're told and instead run to the product owner with "10 great new ideas" that are going to take up 300% of your sprints for the next quarter.
yeah... last I knew, if a maintainer doesn't want your sticky grubby toddler hands fuckin in their cookie jar, it's their fucking cookie jar and they can tell you to fuck off.
Yeah it's really a mystery why no one wants to step up with well-regulated people like this one in the space.
if a maintainer doesn't want your sticky grubby toddler hands fuckin in their cookie jar, it's their fucking cookie jar and they can tell you to fuck off.
Yeah, that is exactly how it works. And doing that leads to your tool dying since you have no clue how to foster a community to take care of it.
Jfc your replies in this thread are so cringe. Gatekeeping boomer energy.
You are pretty much the case in point: Grossly stereotyping the alternative into a perspective only based on extreme prejudice with an ample amount of pet peeves projected from personal experience. Like, I was actually expecting to see at least one valid counterpoint, like how much corporate interests shit on and ransack OSS, or the inherent dichotomy between software maintained out of goodwill in an environment that's increasingly defined by greed and intellectual property bullshit inside failing economies, but nope.
WiFi is a fad anyways.
I'd like it if Valve steps up to do the job. They're making hardware that needs WiFi, might as well go all in.
Although I get the thought I would rather everything not centralise to valve and Gabe Newell
The likely alternatives are Google, Apple, Microsoft, or Amazon. 😕
Does it have to be a Business can it not be Steve who lives in Nebraska?
Steve burned out a long time ago after all the free work he did on top of his day job.
It's better if the titular Steve isn't from US. Right now at least.
And Intel, Qualcomm, or AMD. Or probably several others as well.
https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/14/youngsters_in_foss/
Read this a few days ago and it feels pretty relevant here.
that interview is fucking trash and I'll prove it.
there is a high bar to clear. It often feels as if you need to surpass whatever the existing functionality is. Just to get accepted, you have to offer something better than some existing product that may have been around for decades.
when has it NOT been a high bar? the original maintainers weren't just creating a thing for a thing. they were creating THE thing that usually directly competed with a global tech powerhouse with hundreds of developers and a budget in the millions.
getting a youngster to share their code for the whole world to see is a very intimidating prospect.
when has it not been?! stop being a bitch and put your shitty code out there. nobody is going to give a fuck about it anyway.
problem is, they[classes] often don't cover material that's essential for contributing. For instance, using tools like Git, and indeed, not just Git itself, but also supporting infrastructure such as GitHub. And this applies equally to GitLab and other alternatives.
git gud. git over it. this person acts like experienced devs just popped out of their mothers vagina knowing all the shit they do. invest the time in to improve your skills and you will reap the benefits a hundred fold. you can't become a master overnight, it takes time and experience.
Why do FOSS at all? What's the incentive to write something and make it open source? Why not spend your time and effort on starting a company and trying to get rich? As most contributors report, working in FOSS can often lead to a terrible life/work balace.
I'm so glad he finally said it. the WHOLE problem with young devs is that almost all of them are looking to get rich and retire from developing with some "big idea". they don't want to solve problems. they don't want to improve technology. if it wasn't for the fact that they spend the majority of their day in their job as "developers" you would have to call them ~~vulture~~ venture capitalists. VCs are negatively aligned with FOSS ideologies, so of course they aren't interested in building something for free.
it's because Jr devs were indoctrinated into the church of google and microsoft and apple and ibm and amazon before they even knew what code was. they were handed keys to big flashy sdks and told "you're a real dev now! go create something big for us!"
being a developer is more than just slinging code. it's more than the salary. it's more than the clout and the hype and the long hours and thankless weekends.
being a developer is about seeking out problems in the world and solving them with science. but not just any problem, a problem that can actually be solved with science. not masked, not repaired, solved.
any dev that can't understand that will always be subpar in my opinion. I'm not gatekeeping, I'm just setting the bar high enough that the field isn't flooded with talentless greedy VC-wannabes that it collapses. Setting the bar high is healthy, after all not just anybody can apply and become a QB for a national football team, or a CEO of a company, or a doctor....
anyone working with FOSS should be celebrated much more. They are the people who make the world better for all of us while money grubbers are driving it to hell.
Should I be worried?
Is it the new cool thing for Linux maintainers to step down?
Third time I’ve seen it recently…
It's demographics. Linux contributors & maintainers skew heavily to the older end of the spectrum (and, although not relevant to this point, also skew heavily male).
People who can contribute time to a project for free tend to be older because they are financially and career settled by the time they hit 50s. Raising a family tends not to leave a lot of spare time.
Bingo.
Contributing and/or maintaining a FOSS project < not getting murdered by my wife for "playing on my computer instead of spending time with my family."
It could be some of the most mission-critical work imaginable, but she'd still see it as goofing around because I'm not getting paid, and she requires attention. And I love the hell out of my wife, so happy wife indeed equals happy life.
I mean, probably someone at qualcomm will likely take his place? They need drivers for themselves anyway and will probably continue providing them. I have no idea who the contributors of similar drivers are but I'd imagine Intel makes drivers for their wifi chips themselves and contributes them to the kernel since they count as one of the biggest contributors.
And this is how I see Linux quickly unravelling and planned insecurities creeping in over the next decade or so.
Jeeze. Not everything is doom. Someone else will step up. In fact, they already have started adjusting.
These things happen periodically.
You're being dramatic, the world will collapse before this becomes a problem
I always say the doom of humanity won’t be wars or something sudden. It’ll be something that’s been silently happening: the extinction of species and ecosystems one by one that’s been accelerating in the last 50 years. And now with global warming, it’ll only get worse because environments are changing and forcing species out of their homes.
And this is something I don’t see getting better at all. Social media just seems to have made people even more egocentric and selfish and actionless too, because ranting about problems online makes people feel like they did their part.
We’ll just witness the world falling apart one disaster after another and watch it as “entertainment” on TikTok and Reels, until it’s our turn.
Great! FreeBSD needs help with WiFi!
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
