Abandon Ware

$ whois Phil Coval

• Software Engineer from Rennes, France
• OpenSource Contributor, Mozilla Rep (IoT)
• Involved in industry's OSS:
  • Tizen (Intel), Yocto, IoTivity (Samsung)
• Contact: https://purl.org/rzr
  • Presentations, Videos, Social…
  • Currently available for cooperation
• Link me from Fediverse:
  • https://mastodon.social/@rzr
  • https://peertube.mastodon.host/@rzr

Software is never finished

Software will be abandoned

• Abandonware is a product
  • typically software,
  • ignored by its owner and manufacturer,
  • and for which no support is available
• Open source products include permission
  • to use the source code
  • FLOSS without community is just software

Challenges

• Code isn't like wine,
  • it does not get better over time
• Upstream is not users' contractor
• Software needs users & developers !
  • Community interdependence

Lifespan of OSS

• Author(s) publish code
  • Users use code (free riders)
  • Community improves code
• Developers add features, fixes
• Or fade away…
  • Ship and forget (next hype)
  • Lack of interest, funding
  • AFK or worse situations
• Sustainability challenge

AFK

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Strategies

• OSS Users might stay, and make patches
  • not merged upstream
  • many downstream forks
    • that might be also abandoned too

(Cyber) Insecurity:

• Vulnerabilities in code
• AND/OR its dependencies
  • AND/OR dependencies' dependencies…
• Fix CVE with patches?
  • Any side effects ?
    • in un-audited (closed) code ?
• Minimal maintenance is desirable
  • for each link of chain

(Cyber) Negligence:

Best effort cooperation

• Co-maintenance for orphaned project
  • by trusty FLOSS community
• "Current" Open Infrastructure/ Development:
  • https://abandonware.github.io/
  • https://github.com/abandonware/
  • https://gitlab.com/abandonware/

Trust

• Should be bi-directional
  • Web Of Trust (PGP)
• Commitment to trustworthy org
  • eg: Debian keyring
• Best effort again, support welcome
• Example:
  • https://github.com/abandonware/noble/pull/10

Procedure Flows

• Track patches: URL in commit messages:
  • Origin:, Forwarded: Relate-to:
• Forward patches to upstream first
• Rebase on upstream ASAP
• Setup CI/CD

CI/CD, DevOps, AI?

• Automate (eg: GitHub actions)
• Code is scanned by bots:
  • issues reported, patches proposed
• Changes announced to social channels
• Others: namespaces:
  • JS lib published to NPM:
    • "@abandonware" repository
• Next? : AI or Collective Intelligence ?

Entry door

• Procedures (WIP) & Examples:
  • https://abandonware.github.io/
• Feedback welcome:
  • https://github.com/abandonware/abandonware.github.io/

"bluetooth-hci-socket"

"@abandonware/ bluetooth-hci-socket"

Help welcome

• Identify orphaned projects
  • https://github.com/abandonware/abandonware.github.io/issues/10
• Join reviewers, testers, mentors
• Relationship to up/down/stream
• Improve CI/CD (more OS, toolchains etc)
• Feedback, Support, Funding
• Adopt orphaned packages
  • for better maintenance ?

Summary

• Software will be unmaintained
• Users might need legacy software
• Security matters
• Need Trust, Procedures and automation
• Software need community
• Abandonware is place for best effort:
  • Identification, adoption and more?

Ethics matters

• Today, We're in a Pre-Cooperation age
• Every one has responsability for sustainability
• Inspirations:
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_intelligence
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarpunk
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy_by_design

Resources

• https://abandonware.github.io/
• https://github.com/abandonware/
• https://www.npmjs.com/search?q=@abandonware
• Feedback welcome:
  • https://purl.org/rzr
  • https://github.com/abandonware/abandonware.github.io

Q&A Thanks

• Thanks #OpenFest2020 !
  • Mozilla/WebThingsIo, Leon
• https://github.com/rzr/rzr-presentations
• License: CC-BY-SA-4.0 ~RzR 2020
• Copyrights belong to their respective owners

Upcoming

• <2020-11-19 Thu> #MiniDebConfOnline

More

• https://purl.org/rzr
• https://purl.org/rzr/presentations
• https://purl.org/rzr/demo
• https://purl.org/rzr/weboftwins
• https://purl.org/rzr/social
• https://purl.org/rzr/video

Video playback

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More

• https://purl.org/rzr
• https://purl.org/rzr/presentations
• https://purl.org/rzr/demo
• https://purl.org/rzr/weboftwins
• https://purl.org/rzr/social
• https://purl.org/rzr/video

Playlist

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