at no time during my work as a free software maintainer have i ever felt anything like a cop, nor do i wish to ever feel that way

it’s just toxic masculinity at the end of the day. even if you’re doing “beta” (as opposed to “alpha”) work, you still have to act tough, and perceive yourself as tough, i guess.

i felt bad when the GNOME folks hired holly million as their ED, because it was clearly performative, and they clearly set her on a path of failure. glass cliff for sure.

the slow moving trainwreck was pre-ordained.

and the thing is — when you cut the big tech workers out of the picture — i think more of us free software practitioners have more in common with holly than with the average google engineer being paid to hack on chromium full time

my whole reason for doing professional work with technology was from a deeply spiritual need to be helpful, i know others see things the same way, because i’ve met people who have said so.

it’s not about the “brotherhood of maintainers,” but about the productivity that our work as maintainers enables for the commons