Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall reaction to archiving and “taken up farming”

  • Many express happiness and respect for the decision, contrasting it with more abrupt, mysterious disappearances of past OSS figures.
  • Several note that his GitHub activity had already dropped sharply around 2021; mass‑archiving is seen as a clear signal he’s done, not an invitation to keep expecting maintenance.
  • Some view “taken up farming” as possibly tongue‑in‑cheek shorthand for “doing something totally non‑tech,” but others take it literally; the thread does not conclusively clarify this.

Open source maintenance, expectations, and burnout

  • Multiple comments highlight how much responsibility falls on solo maintainers in popular OSS, often without funding.
  • There’s debate over whether “OSS needs more people” vs. “OSS should be treated as free code with no right to demand maintenance.”
  • A recurring theme: users feel entitled; maintainers feel guilt or harassment; this leads to burnout and eventually hard exits like archiving everything.
  • Some argue the healthiest model is: publish code, expect users to fork if they need ongoing work.

Farming: romance vs. reality

  • Strong split:
    • Enthusiasts describe farming/homesteading as life‑changing, grounding, and more meaningful than abstract software work.
    • Skeptics emphasize long hours, low margins, high capital costs, exposure to weather, machinery, and injury.
  • Many stress the difference between:
    • Industrial/commercial farming (complex, capital‑intensive, risky, often thin profits).
    • Hobby/small‑scale or semi‑retirement farms (more lifestyle than livelihood, often subsidized by savings or another job).
  • Several note farmers must be polymaths (mechanics, vets, accountants, marketers) and sometimes engage with futures/forward contracts and subsidies; others push back that many small farmers don’t actually trade futures themselves.

Lifestyle, meaning, and “touching grass”

  • Numerous anecdotes from people who left high‑pressure tech jobs for lower‑paid but saner roles or rural life, often reporting better work‑life balance and mental health.
  • Others admit trying farming or rural living, finding it instructive but ultimately preferring city life or intellectually demanding software work.
  • Common advice: if you romanticize farming, try working on a real farm first; breaks and experimentation are valuable, but so is understanding the hard parts.

Project continuity and alternatives

  • Some wish the projects had been transferred to an org; others think clear archival is kinder than half‑abandoned repos.
  • Community points to alternatives to his tools (e.g., neofetch forks/clones, lists of “fetch” utilities) for users who still need similar functionality.