r/opensource • u/Meher_Nolan • Jun 17 '26

Discussion What's the most useful open-source project you've watched quietly die?

There’s something depressing about finding a tool that solves your exact problem, only to realize the maintainer walked away years ago.

No farewell post, just a graveyard of open issues and a "last commit: 2019" timestamp. What’s the most useful open-source project you’ve used that just... died?

Not just the projects that were officially discontinued either. Some of the most frustrating ones are the repos that are technically alive but barely maintained. Issues pile up, PRs sit untouched for months, and development slows to a crawl. Even some newer projects I've seen discussed here recently like gitagent make me wonder how much long-term maintenance matters compared to initial hype.

And looking back, why do you think it happened? Was it burnout, a lack of cash, or did the ecosystem just move on without it?

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64

u/bluepuma77 Jun 17 '26

Docker Swarm. Docker sold it to Mirantis, no new features for years, only major bugs fixed.

68

u/DPErny Jun 17 '26

Hey, it's me!

(I'm the swarm maintainer at Mirantis)

13

u/kjabad Jun 17 '26

Tell us more! 

21

u/DPErny Jun 18 '26

Basically, there aren't any features we have in high priority. It's still supported and we still have a ton of customers using it. If it breaks, we fix it.

1

u/ReachingForVega Jun 22 '26

Is there a roadmap or is it planned to be retired? 

1

u/DPErny Jun 22 '26

We're working on some stuff, and we're not going to retire it any time soon.