LibXML2 Will Carry on (Without or With the Name "LibXML2")
The proprietary software boosters are projecting
Last month I argued that: "When it comes to proprietary software, it tends to come with a higher price tags, sometimes more bells and whistles. But it contains a lot of bugs, those bugs don't tend to be fixed (sometimes they charge for new versions that tackle bugs), and in most cases there's bloat and a growing risk that the maintaining company - not a community but a single point of failure - will go out of business."
I've noticed a lot of propaganda lately about some Free software projects being "risky" or "dangerous" because only one person maintains them. One recent catalyst or driver of this line of reasoning is LibXML2. They say "nobody pays" the FOSS devs; how about most proprietary software developers (companies in particular) being deep in debt? Which one is worse?
They say stuff like, Free software depends on just one person; proprietary depends on one company. At least that one developer can easily pass on stewardship for maintenance. LibXML2 will live on or be forked.
Free software generally lasts a lot longer than proprietary counterparts. Sometimes is just hibernates a little. For instance, WordPress is a successor or continuation of sorts (of b2).
Speaking of hibernation, it has been 2 months since the last message in libreplanet-discuss (by Akira Urushibata). It's probably the longest-ever duration of silence for the libreplanet-discuss mailing list. █