"Many open source developers never see an annual income that large. Indeed, according to a 2024 Tidelift maintainer report, 60 percent of open source maintainers are unpaid, and 60 percent have quit or considered quitting, largely due to burnout and lack of compensation."
"Sonatype CTO Brian Fox recently told me that Maven Central, the Java registry, has delivered hundreds of billions of downloads, yet it runs on a shoestring in terms of funding, staff, and infrastructure."
Large tech companies have donated a mere $12.5 million to open source projects, which is insignificant compared to their total market cap of $7.7 trillion. Many open source maintainers are unpaid, with 60 percent considering quitting due to burnout and lack of compensation. Only 26 percent of those paid earn more than $1,000 annually. Language registries like Maven Central operate on limited funding despite handling trillions of downloads, with the majority of demand coming from a small percentage of users.
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