“Video.js: The Documentary” and the Cost of Maintaining Open Source (Series #Software)

What happens to an open project when many teams use it and the people who maintain it can no longer do the work? Cult.Repo’s documentary about Video.js shows several versions of that problem.

Over a weekend in 2010, Steve Heffernan built controls for the new HTML5 video and released them as a library. The timing was good: the web was moving from Flash to video built into the browser. Video.js used HTML5 by default and fell back to Flash when needed. A community formed around the player and created hundreds of plugins.

Corporate support came later. Brightcove bought Zencoder, where Steve worked. People in the film say this brought investment and new opportunities, but gradually shifted priorities toward large customers. The player gained features and, in their view, lost some of its original focus on ease of use for developers.

Meanwhile, Sam Potts created Plyr because he wanted a lighter, simpler player. Over time, users started asking in the issues whether the project was dead. Sam explains that he no longer had enough time to maintain it. He later teamed up with Rahim Alwer, the creator of Vime, and they worked on Vidstack.

Video.js faced a different risk. News of Brightcove’s pending acquisition broke in late 2024. Steve says the company’s Video.js developers were laid off after the deal. An old, widely used project could have been left without a team. Mux took on corporate support and brought together developers from Video.js, Plyr, Vidstack, and Media Chrome for the new version.

What interests me is how the risks change. A creator’s spare time doesn’t scale well with the number of users. A company can pay a team, but that comes with business priorities and the risk of a change in ownership. An open license lets people carry on the work. It leaves open who will triage bugs, accept changes, and pay for the work for years to come.

The people involved tell the story, and Mux now supports Video.js, so keep their perspective in mind when watching the ending. Sam’s experience with questions in the issue tracker and the story of the Brightcove team show how differently a project can lose its maintainers.

#Software #OpenSource #Engineering #History #Management