What happened to RubyGems and what can we learn? - Speaker Deck

What happened to RubyGems and what can we learn?

by Mike McQuaid

Speaker Deck

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What Happened to RubyGems and What Can We Learn? 💎 🎇 🧐 Mike McQuaid

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framing 🖼

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this is not a trial ⚖

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certainty is a red flag 🚩

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incentives are everything 🌍

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learning over drama 🧑🏫

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FOSS infrastructure 🏗

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invisible when it works 🫥

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critical when it fails ☢

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this story is about that 📚

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who? 👋

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Project Leader of Homebrew (Homebrew Maintainer 2009 – Present)

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Principal Engineer at GitHub (GitHub Engineer 2013 – 2023)

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Rubyist (2005 - Present)

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CTPO at Administrate (2025 - Present)

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not a RubyGems maintainer 🚫

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not a RubyCentral person 🚫

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asked to mediate 🕊

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failed to mediate 😩

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September - October 2025 📆

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helped gem.coop governance 🧑⚖

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learned some things 📚

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what? 💎

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RubyGems 💎

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Founded 2004 📆

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Millions of applications 📦

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Not a "side project" 🕹

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money? 🤑

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servers: cost money 💸

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on-call: costs money 📟

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incidents: costs money 🚒

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not everything: costs money 🆓

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comparison 🍻

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Homebrew 🍺

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hosting: provided freely 🆓

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trade-off: independence ⚖

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trade-off: dependence 🔗

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timeline ⏳

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RubyCentral founded: 2001 💎

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RubyCentral founded: 2001 💎

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RubyGems released: Mar 2004 💎

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RubyTogether founded: 2015 💎

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RubyTogether/RubyCentral merged: 2022 💎

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timeline ⏳

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September 2025 📆

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access removed 🔒

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no notice 🚫

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no governance 🧑⚖

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recovery attempt ❤🩹

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Mid September 2025 📆

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governance proposed 🧑⚖

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access restored 🔓

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https://github.com/rubygems/rfcs/pull/61

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mediation attempted 🕊

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access removed (again) 🔒

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security invoked 🚓

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Late September 2025 📆

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root access: active 🦷

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RubyGems/Bundler move to Ruby Core team 💎

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https://rubycentral.org/news/rubygems-org-aws-root-access-event-september-2025/

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public disclosure 📣

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https://www.404media.co/how-ruby-went-off-the-rails/

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confidence collapses 📉

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lawsuits begin 🧑⚖

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consequences ⛓💥

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talk fails 📣

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maintainers exit 🚪

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October 2025 📆

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gem.coop 💎

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https://gem.coop

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professional FOSS 👔

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hard FOSS ⛑

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volunteer limits 🪫

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structural burnout 📉

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careers 🧑🏭

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FOSS is not a career 🙅

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plan for your exit 🚪

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one size doesn't fit all 👠

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lessons 👩🏫

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this is not about blame ⚖

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if you're 100% sure 🚩

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governance is boring 🥱

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governance is boring (until it isn't) 🥱

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money makes things complicated 🤑

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ask better questions 🙋

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ask what broke and why 🙋

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questions? 🌐 [email protected] https://mikemcquaid.com