The People Holding Up the Internet. Amazing to see how much of the modern internet still depends on the volunteer work of individual people. 4 billion phones rely on the time zone database, a text file edited by just two people in their spare time.
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Comments 3
This was a fascinating reminder of what public service looks like in the late internet era. Ever since I first became aware of him in the early 1990s, I held Jon Postel in high regard. He was one of the first of this breed of people, and I still try to cleave to his robustness principle ("Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send").
This is beautiful, interesting, and thought-provoking. I’m left wondering how and why these solo maintainers have remained underfunded, considering that their software has been foundational in generating immense wealth in the last 30 years through the dot-com, crypto, and AI booms. Based on my daily experience with software developers over that same timeframe, I suspect there’s a deep attachment to the status quo on the part of the maintainers.
The most surprising thing, to me, is that there haven't been more supply-chain attacks on these systems: these things just have huge targets painted on them.
Of course there has been one we know of. There will be more.
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