Taking a break is good
Earlier this week, curl project lead Daniel Stenberg announced the “curl summer of bliss“. For just over a month, the maintainers will be taking a break. This includes not accepting any vulnerability reports. This is a good thing.
Most open source software relies in part or in total on the work of volunteers. Nothing can cause burnout quite like never getting a break. Even when someone is being paid to maintain software, they still need some time away. Taking time off is an investment in the long-term sustainability of the project.
“But this is bad for security!” you say. Yes, some vulnerabilities may go unaddressed. You get what you pay for sometimes. Stenberg made clear in his post that people with support contracts will still receive their agreed level of service. If the security of the project is important enough to you, there’s something you can do about it. curl has seen a large increase in security reports this year. If a month off buys extra years of maintenance, that seems like a good trade.
It’s easy for open source contributors to get wrapped up in the project. It becomes part of their identity and they sometimes feel like the project couldn’t run without them. In some cases, that’s true. But we’re all still people and we need time to regroup. If you find yourself overwhelmed, you can take a break.
This post’s featured photo by David Lezcano on Unsplash.
