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Leebert [soylentnews.org] writes:

Information Week reports [informationweek.com] on the financial difficulties of Harlan Stenn [nwtime.org], the primary developer of the NTP reference implementation. No specific financial information is provided, but apparently Stenn is only "scraping by" on "sporatic" consulting work.

From the article:

For the last three-and-a-half years, Stenn said he's worked 100-plus hours a week answering emails, accepting patches, rewriting patches to work across multiple operating systems, piecing together new releases, and administering the NTP mailing list.

Stenn "has given himself a deadline: Garner more financial support by April, 'or look for regular work.'"

The story is reminiscent of those we've recently heard about OpenSSL and GPG: Widely deployed, critical code mostly maintained with volunteered time and a shoestring budgets.

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