Growing Up The Hard Way

This article explores the evolving landscape of open source software and the increasing need for commercial support to ensure its long-term viability. The author argues that open source is transitioning into a two-tiered system: a ‘subset’ of projects that meet enterprise requirements (reachability, disclosure, patching) and a broader category of projects that remain freely available but require ongoing maintenance and support from external vendors. The piece contends that this shift isn't a tragedy of the commons, but a distribution problem – a lack of funding and structured governance for the maintenance layer. It suggests that companies are increasingly willing to pay for services like backported fixes and extended support to avoid the operational burden of managing critical open-source dependencies themselves. The article highlights the EU's Cyber Resilience Act as a key driver of this trend, introducing the concept of a ‘steward’ to provide sustained support for commercial open-source use.