Homebrew is thriving while other open source projects struggle. Its scarcest resource isn't money: it's maintainer motivation.

Memories of my friend and former GitHub coworker Jason Rudolph, who died in May 2026.

Memories of my friend and former GitHub coworker Jason Rudolph, who died in May 2026.

Why is Windows 11 so disliked by programmers – and can Microsoft do anything to change things? Interviewed by Keumars Afifi-Sabet on ITPro. “Stop trying to overrule my preferences on how to use my computer.”

Merge-queue deploys, robust releases and chores you keep forgetting

Homebrew tightens tap security, begins work on its interface Interviewed by Anamarija Pogorelec on Help Net Security. “It’s probably aimed a little more at newcomers than experienced Homebrew users.”

"PCs for Dummies" published 1999 and found in my parents house had some gold content (¼):

Shout to the #OSS community and what might got forgotten along the way; Remember the #OpenSource values and have some fun folks! 🥳 Well put @mikemcquaid.com 👏 Full video and worth a watch: youtu.be/FkgzXfA_MEI?... #SooCon26 @openuk.bsky.social

Panel: "The impact of AI on open source software development" at SOOCon26 Edinburgh

YouTube video by OpenUK

youtu.be

Today, I’m proud to announce Homebrew 6.0.0. Since 5.1.0: secure tap trusting, faster JSON API, Linux sandboxing, better defaults, brew bundle improvements, improved performance, initial macOS Golden Gate support.

I gave a talk: The impact of AI on open source software development Five experienced open source practitioners cut through the hype to ask what AI is actually doing to the communities, projects, and humans that keep open source alive.

Flood of AI ‘garbage’ is pushing open-source developers to the limit Interviewed by Matthew Sparkes on New Scientist. “The skill right now is being able to skim and spot nonsense while investing as little of your own time as you possibly can.”

It‘s fiiiine …

“It’s the duty of all Free Software developers to steal as much time as they can from their employers for software freedom.” Jeremy Allison, co-creator of Samba and, at the time, a Google employee. 🫡

Open source maintainers at profitable companies: stop asking permission to fix what your employer already depends on. No paperwork. No programme. No manager’s blessing. Just maintain it on the clock.

Your regular reminder that shitting on OSS on social media is a selfish thing to do. Good job sapping volunteer maintainers’ motivation in exchange for your “internet points”. Next time: try rolling up your sleeves and contribute a fix to the problem you’ve identified.

I wonder how much of people loving or hating meetings is down to how well they can type or multitask.

This AI Tool Rips Off Open Source Software Without Violating Copyright Interviewed by Emanuel Maiberg on 404 Media. “The ethics fucking suck. Open source isn’t just source code you download once. It’s an ongoing relationship.”

“I’m excited to work with you, the company seems great. I’m a little unwhelmed with the salary, though, is there any chance you can do better?” This sentence gets most who try a 0-10% new job pay increase with zero resentments. Paraphrase it and use it (even on me).

Stop babysitting one AI at a time. Sandboxing lets them run wild safely, Git worktrees let them run in parallel. Use more tokens, get more velocity.

This was a good read and reflects my experiences. It also made me think the answer to “what do we do with juniors/students and AI” is “actually teach them software engineering best practices, not just CS fundamentals”.

Recreating office-style pranks in a remote AI-loving world

At work, you have two jobs: being good at your job, being pleasant to work with. You can sometimes get by for a while not doing them both but it’s hard to survive doing neither.

Ruby Central report reopens wounds over RubyGems repo takeover Interviewed by The Register. “If your project hasn’t argued about governance or money yet, it will one day. Be prepared and try to do this before it becomes a problem.”

Every time you open an issue or pull request with “No description provided”, an open source maintainer dies.

One of the strengths of Homebrew, despite it being unpopular, is being willing to break backwards compatibility when necessary. NPM’s unwillingness to do so reflects GitHub’s: both show excessive caution that harm both security and usability.

My talk “Ruby on Guard (Rails)” from Haggis Ruby 2024 is now on YouTube. Weird watching in hindsight when I was very much pre-AI. If anything, AI only makes the guardrails more important and valuable.

Job security for engineers is dead. Career security is what matters. You build it by learning, changing, taking risks, being reliable and stepping outside your lane. Your employer won’t prioritise your long-term career. You should.

This was a good read. Review is good but it does slow things down. With async PR review, I prefer the “✅ with comments” review. Unblock the person from merging with trust they will read and resolve your comments first.

In case you missed it in Homebrew 5.1.0 release notes: we’re doing a short user survey to inform future development.

Today I’m proud to announce the release of Homebrew 5.1.0. The most significant changes since 5.0.0 are expanded brew bundle support, brew version-install, new -full formula handling and installer updates.