--- title: "Interview with Maxim Salnikov" url: "https://www.bekk.christmas/post/2019/14/interview-with-maxim-salnikov" authors: ["Henrik Walker Moe"] published: "2019-12-14" updated: "2024-11-07T13:05:28Z" language: "en-US" type: "article" tags: ["Open source"] --- # Interview with Maxim Salnikov Today's interview is with [@webmaxru](https://twitter.com/webmaxru). Maxim works at [@MicrosoftNorge](https://twitter.com/MicrosoftNorge) in Developer Relations and is active in the Progressive Web App (#PWA) scene. He also organizes [@ngVikingsConf](https://twitter.com/ngVikingsConf) & [@mobileeraconf](https://twitter.com/mobileeraconf) confs, [@AngularOslo](https://twitter.com/angularoslo) & [@MobileOslo](https://twitter.com/mobileoslo) meetups, and is a [@GoogleDevExpert](https://twitter.com/GoogleDevExpert). ## In short Open source work depends as much on sustaining a healthy community as on the code itself, so projects need clear guidance, good issue hygiene, and ways for people to contribute beyond commits. The interview also highlights practical maintainer workflows, advice for newcomers to start early and be patient, and a future where open source is simply the default way software is made. - **For:** Open source contributors and maintainers - **Good to know beforehand:** Basic familiarity with open source _AI-generated_ The questions below came from a simple question we asked ourselves: > if you had the chance, what would you ask an Open source maintainer/person/community member. Here we go! ## What are your biggest challenges in working with Open source today and how do you handle them? Building a healthy community around your project who could take care of maintaining while core contributor(s) takes a break (which will inevitably happen) or leaves the project. Sustainability is the cornerstone. ## Are there any useful tools you use to make your GitHub-life easier to manage, and if so, could you share a few of them with us? The default toolset, VS Code + its GitHub and npm plugins + Terminal, covers pretty much all I need to build and maintain my projects ## How can repository-owners facilitate contributions from newcomers in Open source? Creating a welcoming environment (it's way more challenging than technical issues), providing good logistics (clear guidance, ergonomic templates, thoughtful issues labeling), educating by blog posts and sessions at the conferences. ## If you could time-travel to when you first started, what advice would you give yourself as an Open source rookie? Don't wait with starting your contributions and be patient both as maintainer and contributor. Also, don't limit yourself by committing to the codebase only, there are lots of other ways to contribute to the project. ## Can you describe how you see the future of Open source, what new directions or paths do you think it will take? As now we use "open source software" term to distinct from "default" one (closed source), in the future, we could have just "software" (open source a-priory) vs Closed Source Software as something exceptional. I.e. the OSS term will fade away, becoming just a mainstream. Thanks for taking the time to talk with us Maxim! 💪