Developers like us pledge to support open-source

I was recently previously contributing to a project when something broke on the CI builds due to an issue with how a referenced library was misconfigured.

I didn't realize the library was being used. It was configured in a way that meant it didn't show up inside Visual Studio when working with the solution.

I also knew this library had a special (moral) license. This "required" those using it to support the project financially, but the business wasn't.

I wasn't using the functionality of the library, but when I discovered this, I did two things:

1. I made a personal financial contribution to the project.

2. I highlighted this to the business and indicated that they should be financially supporting the project if they wished to keep using the library. (The person who originally added the library pleaded ignorance--"But, it's open source, so we don't need to pay.")

People like us (developers like us):

• Support the people writing open-source software. Financially if possible (and requested).
• Respect the spirit of open-source licenses. Not just the minimum, enforceable legal requirements.

This incident raises other, bigger questions, but I'll discuss them at another time—maybe.

However, I mention this because I recently heard about the Open Source Pledge. An initiative to help encourage companies to "Do the right thing, support Open Source".

No, it's not going to solve the problem of funding and support for open source maintainers, but it will help.