What can be done about the #OpenSource world to make things more #sustainable?
The biggest thing, by far, is to make things as simple as possible! That means you will inherently have fewer dependencies.
Depend on libraries that have long term support.
Contribute upstream whenever possible. Mainly code, but if you are selling #hardware, money too.
hestiahacker - LTS for hardware is brutal. CPUs get discontinued all the time. The same is true for small board computers (SBCs). For example, the oDroid SBCs looked promising but they never got their kernel patches upstreamed nor did they port their patches forward to newer kernels. So you could only run them with an old kernel that's no longer supported. They ended up abandoning those models of hardware all together. Now they have new models. How long do you think they will support those? Probably not long.
#RaspberryPi may have their own problems, but they've been solid on supporting both their #hardware and #software.
They even publish a minimum number of years they are going to keep producing each model of hardware. This allows projects to plan around that, which gives rPi a leg up when it comes time to decide which hardware to use.
I hope you enjoyed my reflections on the state of long term support and comparing commercial IoT to #OpenSource #IoT.
I've spent a lot of time not just thinking about this, but living it. I've had the core of the #HestiaPi (#OpenHAB) abandon support for all versions of Java that can run in a Raspberry Pi Zero W. 😩
So now our project is at a crossroad. How do we proceed? It'll run on the Pi Zero 2 W, but what about all our original users who have a pi Zero W soldered onto their PCB?
I think I see a path forward that will let still use the existing #hardware & OpenHAB. It'll be a lot of work, but I think we can do it.
If this is the kind of project you want to support:
1. Build or buy a #HestiaPi
2. Tell your friends
3. Contribute: bug reports, beta testing, documentation, #code, answering questions on the forum, or #building hardware for others
We don't currently accept monetary donations (but you can #zap me personally if you'd like).
I have been supporting this #hardware for over 5 years now and want to keep doing so as long as I can.
Having more people contribute makes it easier. Having more people buy hardware let's me buy in bulk & cut prices.
