Comment by johngossman

There are many reasons for doing OSS. Perhaps the company you work for pays you to (the author mentions the many contributors to K8s at Red Hat et al). Perhaps you are building your resume, a student learning to program and interested in feedback, or you’ve built something for yourself and generously sharing with others, giving back to the community from which you in turn are getting valuable software. Or maybe it’s a passion project. Unless you are paid to, perhaps not even then, nothing obligates you to maintain the project, to offer free support. Consider a crude analogy: you are passionate about music, you practice, then start playing in the park (with or without your guitar case open accepting contributions). You’re good, people gather to listen to you. Perhaps a record producer will stop by and offer you a big contract. Unlikely. If you find you tire of playing in the park, it is taking away time from your job and your family, you are not obligated to continue playing…no matter how much your fans love your playing. And an essay “The Lack of Compensation in Busking is unsustainable” would be unlikely to gain you much sympathy.