RECYCLING MACHINE

Maintaining software past its due date

Apps

CALLIGRAPHY

FaQ

What's considered abandoned?

The only apps we will consider taking over are those whose authors have explicitly marked as such, either in the readme, by being archived or after direct communication. Apps whose developer hasn't been active in a while are not eligible as they might come back and their branding should only be used by them.

What exactly does 'maintaining' entail?

The main goal is 'keeping the lights on'. Fix deprecations, merge fixes, make releases. Features and improvements are not part of it, however we won't turn down patches adding features as long as they pass the review.

How's this structured? How can I trust you?

Apps become abandoned usually when their author no longer has time to spend on them. But often, just bumping runtimes, fixing a few bugs and making releases is more than enough to ensure the app stays around for a long time. We estimate, based on our experience doing this very thing, this doesn't take a lot of energy and time and could be done in a few hours on weekends. To ensure there's always someone around, the ideal structure would be a group of very trustworthy and reliable people with commit, merge & release access to every single app and smaller groups or a passionate BDFL per app with access to only those apps.

I'm planning on abandoning my app, can you take over?

Only if the app is eligible and you are sure about this. We will change the app ID to our DNS to make it clear that you are no longer responsible for the app and also to verify it. To avoid users having to constantly keep up with app ID changes, we ask you to make sure your decision is final and in case you want to join back in the app's development, to instead become the BDFL for it. However, we cannot stop you if that's not something you'd want.

What tech stacks are eligible?

It largely depends on the people that are around, but for the time being, we are after GTK in any language. In the future, if enough people with experience in other toolkits and libraries are around, they will decide whether they can take over. Cross-platform apps that are not primarily Linux focused are not eligible (e.g. Electron, Tauri, FLutter). Apps in obscure languages with undermaintained bindings are not eligible either as we'd have to first become knowledgeable enough in the language to contribute to its bindings before we get the chance to maintain the app.

Who's behind this initiative?

FARAWAY.TOWN, but specifically, GeopJr.