The libxml2 library recently lost its sole maintainer, Nick Wellnhofer, raising concerns about its future, especially in light of potential security vulnerabilities. Despite the voluntary nature of the work, the heavy demands and lack of support led to Wellnhofer's burnout. Thankfully, two new developers have stepped in, but the situation underscores ongoing challenges in maintaining open-source projects.

Daniel Stenberg, the maintainer of the curl project, discussed the challenges of maintaining the widely-used open-source software during a keynote at the Open Source Summit Europe 2025. Despite its significant impact and usage in billions of devices, the project struggles with a lack of financial support from the companies that rely on it, as well as increasing maintenance burdens and problematic communications from users and organizations. Stenberg emphasized the importance of reconsidering how businesses contribute to the open-source projects they depend on for their products.