# How to respond to reactionary behavior in free software communities

DevFeed: [How to respond to reactionary behavior in free software communities](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/just-speak-the-truth-20809.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://drewdevault.com/blog/Speak-the-truth/>)

Author: June

Published: 2025-06-30T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Drew DeVault](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/drew-devault.md>)

Topics: [Security](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/security.md>), [Wayland](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/wayland.md>), [Server](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/server.md>), [Software](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software.md>)

Tags: [community](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/community.md>), [security](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/security.md>), [software](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software.md>), [technical](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/technical.md>), [wayland](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/wayland.md>)

## AI overview

The article examines two case studies about responding to reactionary behavior in free software communities. It argues that technical and security-maintenance concerns should be stated directly, while noting the need to keep X usable for desktop environments that will not be ported to Wayland.

## Source excerpt

Today, we're looking at two case studies in how to respond when reactionaries appear in your free software community. Exhibit A It is a technical decision. The technical reason is that the security team does not have the bandwidth to provide lifecycle maintenance for multiple X server implementations. Part of the reason for moving X from main to community was to reduce the burden on the security team for long-term maintenance of X. Additionally, nobody so far on the security team has expressed any interest in collaborating with xxxxxx on security concerns. We have a working relationship with Freedesktop already, while we would have to start from the beginning with xxxxxx. Why does nobody on the security team have any interest in collaboration with xxxxxx? Well, speaking for myself only here - when I looked at their official chat linked in their README, I was immediately greeted with alt-right propaganda rather than tactically useful information about xxxxxx development. At least for me, I don't have any interest in filtering through hyperbolic political discussions to find out about CVEs and other relevant data for managing the security lifecycle of X. Without relevant security data products from xxxxxx, as well as a professionally-behaving security contact, it is unlikely for xxxxxx to gain traction in any serious distribution, because X is literally one of the more complex stacks of software for a security team to manage already. At the same time, I sympathize with the need to keep X alive and in good shape, and agree that there hasn't been much movement from freedesktop in maintaining X in the past few years. There are many desktop environments which will never get ported to Wayland and we do need a viable solution to keep those desktop environments working. I know the person who wrote this, and I know that she's a smart cookie, and therefore I know that she probably understood at a glance that the community behind this "project" literally wants to lynch her. In