In an excellent example of one of the most overused XKCD images, the libxml2 library has for a little while lost its only maintainer, with [Nick Wellnhofer] making good on his plan to step down by the end of the year.
While this might not sound like a big deal, the real scope of this problem is rather profound. Not only is libxml2 part of GNOME, it’s also used as dependency by a huge number of projects, including web browsers and just about anything that processes XML or XSLT. Not having a maintainer in the event that a fresh, high-risk CVE pops up would obviously be less than desirable.
Another maintainer already jumped in and he is now maintaining it. The original author forked it actually his own project, and is planning to release it under gpl license (instead of MIT), basically making it open source in a sense I can'tbe used by big tech. Since that was his point, large software projects and companies relied on his work. Yet nobody is paying him.