> “I’d rather be out sailing than working on rsync security issues, so I have reached for several AI tools to help with what needs to be done,”
Well, then maybe it's already overdue to find a new maintainer for the project and let someone else continue it? The tool will not get better from someone working on it who doesn't want to.
> Luckily I’ve been joined by some other very good developers with great systems development skills and security knowledge... Watch out for some credits for some great new rsync developers in the next release.
I don't agree with that, I can very well still discuss that. He clearly sounds like someone who doesn't want to do this work anymore and should have searched for a successor.
That's my impression from that sentence, at least. Don't you agree?
So, why didn't he do it? Because just firing up Claude and let it rip is way easier than finding real people and building up trust?
Did Claude increase bugs in rsync? Or did Claude just gave some basically retired programmer, who doesn't even want to work on his project anymore, the impression that he can replace finding a successor with just handing it to AI?
You're highly critical. What would you be doing differently? So far Tridge has elected to:
- generally decide to fix security issues over preserving compatibility
- rewritten an aging test suite in what appears to be a highly responsible way
- brought on additional qualified developers to help with the workload
Not bad for a guy who's retired.
You care enough to complain on HN. You could be a part of the solution.
What were you going to do differently, specifically?
> That's my impression from that sentence, at least. Don't you agree?
No. Given a choice between doing laundry and driving Lamborghinis, I would probably choose the latter. But I still have to do my laundry. I might use a washing machine to do so. It's just a responsibility among many responsibilities. It isn't that deep, really.
The reality few people want to admit is that maintaining open-source software is often closer for many people to "doing laundry" than like, being the software equivalent of Atticus Finch.
> Or did Claude just gave some basically retired programmer, who doesn't even want to work on his project anymore,
The only thing Claude has "done" apparently is give a bunch of annoying people online a license to engage in armchair psychoanalysis of someone they don't know at all, from what I can tell.
Well, then maybe it's already overdue to find a new maintainer for the project and let someone else continue it? The tool will not get better from someone working on it who doesn't want to.