Comment by evanelias
4 months ago
Assuming it's FOSS, then yes, a maintainer is entirely in their rights to stop maintaining their software for any reason or for no reason at all. If you as a user don't like that, you can fork it, that's the norm for FOSS.
As for respecting someone who responded in that specific wording, no, it's unprofessional. But that's orthogonal to whether or not it's entitlement to expect a regular release cadence from a FOSS project that you have no commercial relationship with.
As for remaining friends, likewise, that's orthogonal to the topic being discussed.
> a maintainer is entirely in their rights [but] it's unprofessional
It is entirely reasonable for users to expect maintainers to behave respectably. Users may not have any legal rights to be treated professionally, but it does not change the reasonableness of the expectation.
> But that's orthogonal
It is not orthogonal. We are not discussing any legal rights; we are only discussing what is socially acceptable behavior from maintainers.
You keep moving the goalposts. We're discussing whether it is entitlement to expect a consistent release schedule and ongoing maintenance from a FOSS project, not about respect and professional wording.
Nor have I mentioned legal rights in my responses. By entirely in their rights, I meant in terms of social norms and expectations, not legally. (That should be obvious, since the maintainer is not a slave, and free society always legally permits people to stop doing unpaid work and hobbies.)
Between multiple subthreads here, several commenters are telling you that your expectations are tantamount to entitlement, and you just don't want to hear it. I'm not going to continue replying to you.