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Dear Reader,

A few months ago, I wrote about the strange case of the misbehaving color.js and faker.js open source libraries. These popular tools were sabotaged by their own developer, who had become disillusioned by the way large companies were using his code without contributing or providing compensation. But the larger point was about the need for an orderly transition when a developer has to step away or step back. Burnout is a serious thing for FOSS developers. And sometimes it isn't even a matter of burnout but is simply that lives have a way of changing. People change jobs, get married, have kids … open source projects need to provide continuity when a lead developer bows out.

When you call out a fiery explosion like the color.js crash, it is good to also shine some light on the successes – projects that successfully pass the baton in an orderly process that maximizes continuity. In the June 1 monthly report at the Linux Mint site [1], Mint announced that it had taken over maintenance of Timeshift, a system snapshot tool that is described as being "…similar to the System Restore feature in Windows and the Time Machine tool in macOS."

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