Comment by megous
9 hours ago
Yes, you can maintain your fork for perpetuity if you can't/will not get your changes upstream. Why is that a problem?
If you're using any complicated FOSS professionally and you have SLA with your customers to say fix issues within day or two you don't have a choice anyway.
> Why is that a problem?
Because it's a ton of unnecessary work. And because of the other reasons I said.
> If you're using any complicated FOSS professionally and you have SLA with your customers to say fix issues within day or two you don't have a choice anyway.
This is true. I always try to upstream patches anyway though.
How do you define unnecessary work if this is... necessary for you?
You are already benefiting from getting the tool/library/system for free, so you can still compare writing the thing you need (necessary?) from scratch or adapting the FOSS solution — maintenance comes with both options.
When you invest enough and are lucky, someone else might just fix the thing for you or pick it up and maintain it for you — but do not count on it, and you are good.