That Open Source Maintainer Life

Sarah Christoff discusses her experiences and challenges as an open source maintainer with a focus on her work with the Porter and Zarf projects. Sarah shares insights into the frustrations and isolation often felt by maintainers, and emphasizes the importance of community and human connections in navigating these roles. We chatted about of Porter and its function in simplifying complex DevOps tool integrations. Additionally, Sarah talks about Zarf, a project recently donated to the OpenSSF aimed at facilitating air-gapped Kubernetes deployments. 

00:00 Introduction

01:29 Challenges of Being an Open Source Maintainer

03:12 The Human Element in Software Development

05:45 Advice for Aspiring Maintainers

08:42 The Porter Project

11:10 The Zarf Project

13:09 The Importance of Community in Open Source

15:31 Women in Tech and Role Models

21:45 Animal Rescue and Community Building

26:10 Final Thoughts and Hot Takes on Open Source

 

Guest: Sarah Christoff is a software engineer at Defense Unicorns who loves making complex code more digestible. She is the self-proclaimed founder of the Leslie Lamport fan club. When she's not bugbusting, she is running her animal rescue and competing in triathlons. She believes code should be like cats: intelligent, fluffy, and easy to take care of.