Homebrew: Features and Funding

Testing

Explore the features and funding model of Homebrew, an open-source project with a unique feature flagging system and transparent donation process, highlighting its maintainers' passion and community reliance.

Key takeaways

Open source funding is broken, and this is not unique to Homebrew.
The concept of “bus factor” applies to Homebrew, where a single maintainer holds the knowledge and code.
The lack of reproducible instructions and documentation can lead to frustration and anger.
The package manager Homebrew has a unique feature flagging system, where new features can be tested on a subset of users before being rolled out to the general public.
Homebrew uses GitHub heavily and relies on it for funding through the GitHub Sponsors program.
The project relies on donations and has a simple donation process in place.
Homebrew’s funding model is transparent, and all donations go into a single bank account.
The project uses a combination of stable and beta tags to manage new features and updates.
Feature flags are used to test new features on a subset of users before rolling them out to the general public.
Homebrew’s maintainers are a small group, and the project relies on a small number of maintainers to keep the project running.
The project has a small number of core maintainers who make decisions and handle issues.
Homebrew’s funding is sufficient to support the project, but the project relies on donations and sponsorship to keep running.
The project’s maintainers are not motivated by money, but by a desire to see the project succeed.
Homebrew’s funding model is transparent, and all donations go into a single bank account.
The project uses a combination of stable and beta tags to manage new features and updates.
Homebrew’s maintainers are a small group, and the project relies on a small number of maintainers to keep the project running.
The project has a small number of core maintainers who make decisions and handle issues.

Homebrew: Features and Funding

More talks