Episode 289: Courtney Miller on Maintainer Burnout and Software Abandonment

Guest Courtney Miller Panelist Richard Littauer Show Notes In this episode of Sustain, Richard welcomes back Courtney Miller to unpack her PhD research on one of open source’s most overlooked problems: what happens when widely used software is abandoned. Courtney explains why abandonment is not always simple, or even always bad, but can create real risks for the developers and projects that depend on it. From npm package research and downstream impact to Abandabot, AI-assisted tooling, maintainer burnout, and responsible sunsetting, this conversation explores how the open source ecosystem can better understand, detect, and respond when the software we rely on stops being maintained. Press download now! [00:01:28] Courtney explains the focus of her dissertation. [00:02:34] Courtney defines abandonment. [00:03:44] Her ecosystem-wide analysis focused on the npm JavaScript ecosystem, looking specifically at widely used packages. [00:05:23] The first part of the dissertation involved interviews with maintainers who rely on abandoned packages and often lack tools or clear processes for responding. [00:06:31] Courtney describes two types of abandonment: Explicit Notice Abandonment and Activity Based Abandonment. [00:09:27] Courtney explains the third and final chapter called, Designing Abandabot. [00:11:10] Richard raises the point that some software can be “done” and still function fine. Courtney agrees, noting that not all abandonment matters and beyond alerts remediation matters. [00:13:22] The conversation expands into under-resourced and under-maintained projects, which can also become supply chain risks before they are fully abandoned. [00:14:53] Richard brings up the “Whale Fall” idea and Courtney agrees and points to responsible sunsetting as an important research area. [00:17:39] We learn about Courtney’s experience bringing AI into the dissertation, especially for building Abandabot’s prediction system. [00:20:54] Richard asks whether AI is already making abandonment more common. [00:24:52] Courtney talks about staying grounded in real practitioner problems as the open source and AI landscape changes quickly. [00:26:30] Final Takeaways: Courtney argues that abandonment needs to be addressed now, especially through software composition analysis tools that can help developers understand and respond to real dependency risk. Quotes [00:01:35] “The title of my dissertation is: “Supporting the Sustainable Use of Open Source Software.” [00:07:10] “There is no right answer how to define abandonment.” [00:07:26] “Explicit Notice Abandonment”- where the maintainers of a package publicly express their intent to no longer do so.” [00:07:42] “The other type of abandonment was called “Activity Based Abandonment” -commonly used as a way of identifying abandonment in open source sustainability literature.” [00:08:26] “Out of the widely used packages, around 15% had abandonment issues.” [00:11:38] “Not all abandonment matters. If left pad is abandoned, who cares?” [00:21:35] “Maybe projects never have to die. You can create a fork and maintain it on your own.” Spotlight [00:27:20] Richard’s spotlight is the translation feature on iPhone in Books. [00:28:20] Courtney’s potlight is her dog, Chanel, and SAFE-MCP. Links SustainOSS [email protected] [email protected] SustainOSS Discourse SustainOSS Mastodon SustainOSS Bluesky SustainOSS LinkedIn Open Collective-SustainOSS (Contribute) Richard Littauer Socials Courtney Miller Website Courtney Miller LinkedIn Sustain Podcast-Episode 140: Courtney Miller and Hongbo Fang on Toxicity and Information Flow in Open Source Communities Supporting the Sustainable Use of Open Source Software by Courtney Elta Miller Whale Fall (Andrew Nesbitt blog) Michael Winser LinkedIn SAFE-MCP SustainOSS - AI, FLOSS, and Sustainability Virtual Forum Registration Sponsor CURIOSS Credits Produced by Richard Littauer Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound Show notes by DeAnn Bahr Peachtree Sound Special Guest: Courtney Miller.