Microsoft opens a "high priority" bug ticket in ffmpeg, attempting to leech the free labour of the maintainers - eviltoast

Microsoft employee:

Hi, This is a high priority ticket and the FFmpeg version is currently used in a highly visible product in Microsoft. We have customers experience issues with Caption during Teams Live Event. Please help

Maintainer’s comment on twitter:

After politely requesting a support contract from Microsoft for long term maintenance, they offered a one-time payment of a few thousand dollars instead.

This is unacceptable.

And further:

The lesson from the xz fiasco is that investments in maintenance and sustainability are unsexy and probably won’t get a middle manager their promotion but pay off a thousandfold over many years.

But try selling that to a bean counter

  • Codex@lemmy.world
    771·
    8 months ago

    I’m convinced it’s the whole B-2-B software world at this point. The shit starts at MS (or any of the FAANGS) and rolls downhill to everyone else.

    We’re working on a huge Dynamics 365 thing at work, and one of the third parties we use for automated testing is just… the product seems barebones, is clearly built on top of open source automated testing tool, and is riddled with indicators that barely anyone works there, from the AI help bot to the “submit a ticket and we’ll assign it eventually” approach to all other interactions.

    I looked them up on Linked In and 12 people work there. 8 of them have C-suite or VP titles, and 4 of them are interns from a local university. This is the state of all modern tech: a board room full of investors, a website, and a product barely glued together from FOSS parts by interns. If you wonder why everything feels like a scam now it’s because it is.

    • Oliver Lowe@apubtest2.srcbeat.com
      8·
      8 months ago

      Found the guy who created the FFMpeg ticket on LinkedIn. Job title: “Principal software engineer”, saying they are “A detailed, analytical Software Engineer with Eighteen years of experience”. 18 years?! Fuck me dead…

    • boonhet@lemm.ee
      2·
      8 months ago

      We’re working on a huge Dynamics 365 thing at work

      So I had two interviews at a Dynamics 365 partner, until they ended up restructuring internally and said they’d “get in contact if they have need for new devs”… Then later I interviewed at an Odoo partner, got the job and ya know what? I’m glad I didn’t get the Dynamics 365 partner job. Not only is our core product FOSS, it actually feels pretty nice as an end user too.

      You probably can’t change things at your job, which sucks, but anyone looking at ERP solutions should probably consider Odoo as an option.