Open Source Sustainability

Open Source Sustainability

Author: Software Engineering Daily May 14, 2026 Duration: 58:43

Open source software underpins nearly every modern application, including frameworks powering the most popular websites, to the libraries securing financial backend systems. However, while open source drives collaboration and innovation at a global scale, it also faces deep challenges in sustainability, community health, and long-term maintenance. Many of the world’s most critical dependencies are still maintained by just a handful of volunteers.

Abby Cabunoc Mayes leads Open Source Maintainer Programs at GitHub, and Brian Muenzenmeyer is a Principal Engineer, Node.js maintainer, and author of the book, Approachable Open Source. Abby and Brian join Josh Goldberg to talk about what it means to build and sustain healthy open source projects, how maintainers can foster inclusive communities, the evolving role of open source in the workplace, and how AI is reshaping the way we collaborate.

Josh Goldberg is an independent full time open source developer in the TypeScript ecosystem. He works on projects that help developers write better TypeScript more easily, most notably on typescript-eslint: the tooling that enables ESLint and Prettier to run on TypeScript code. Josh regularly contributes to open source projects in the ecosystem such as ESLint and TypeScript. Josh is a Microsoft MVP for developer technologies and the author of the acclaimed Learning TypeScript (O’Reilly), a cherished resource for any developer seeking to learn TypeScript without any prior experience outside of JavaScript. Josh regularly presents talks and workshops at bootcamps, conferences, and meetups to share knowledge on TypeScript, static analysis, open source, and general frontend and web development.

Please click here to see the transcript of this episode.

Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com

The post Open Source Sustainability appeared first on Software Engineering Daily.


Dive into the vast Podcast Archives-Software Engineering Daily, a curated collection of in-depth technical conversations that have defined the landscape of modern software development. This archive goes beyond surface-level news, offering a permanent record of deep-dive discussions with engineers, researchers, and founders who are building the tools and platforms shaping our digital world. Each episode is a focused exploration, unpacking complex topics like distributed systems, machine learning infrastructure, programming language design, and the practical challenges of scaling technology. You'll hear firsthand accounts of architectural decisions, post-mortems on system failures, and thoughtful debates on emerging paradigms. It’s a resource built for the curious professional who values substance over soundbites, providing context and depth that shorter formats simply cannot. Whether you're looking to understand the historical context behind a current technology, reinforce your foundational knowledge, or discover niche specialties, this podcast archive serves as an essential, ever-growing library. The conversations are detailed, technical, and assume a level of familiarity with the field, making it a trusted companion for continuous learning. Listen to this podcast not for fleeting headlines, but for the enduring insights and nuanced expertise that come from thoughtful, long-form dialogue with the people writing the code and designing the systems that run our world.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 50

Software Engineering Daily
Podcast Episodes
SED News: Restricted Models, IDE Wars, and the DeepMind Mafia [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:58
SED News is a monthly podcast from Software Engineering Daily where hosts Gregor Vand and Sean Falconer break down the biggest stories shaping software engineering, Silicon Valley, and the broader tech industry. In this…
Grafana’s Approach to AI-Native Observability [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:29
Advanced software systems have long been more complex than any single engineer can fully understand. Observability is the established solution to this problem, but with AI agents now generating code, deploying changes, a…
Building Software That People Love [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:26
Building great software always involves technical problem solving, but the best software goes beyond function. It feels fluid, coherent, and genuinely fun to use. This quality lives at the intersection of engineering and…
Mina the Hollower [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:48
Yacht Club Games is the studio behind the acclaimed Shovel Knight franchise. Their latest release is Mina the Hollower, which is a top-down action RPG inspired by classic Zelda and Castlevania titles. After many years in…
Foundation Models for Structured Data [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:00
Predictive modeling is a core element in modern systems, and powers capabilities such as fraud detection, loan approvals, and recommendation systems. These systems typically operate on structured, relational data stored…
Biome and the Future of JavaScript Tooling [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:56
Modern web development requires an ever-growing collection of tools including formatters, linters, bundlers, and plugins. Each tool typically has its own configuration, dependencies, and performance cost. As applications…
Preparing for Q-Day [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:18
Most of the cryptography securing the internet today rests on mathematical problems that classical computers cannot solve in any reasonable timeframe. That assumption is now being tested. Recent advances in quantum compu…
Developing Multiplayer Games in Godot [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:21
Multiplayer games are among the hardest software systems to build, requiring developers to synchronize state across unreliable networks while maintaining fairness, performance, and a responsive player experience. Latency…
Web Native Game Development [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:08
The web has quietly become one of the most capable platforms for game development. Advances in WebAssembly, WebGL, and WebGPU have given developers tools that rival native desktop performance, while game engines like Uni…