Why I'm Not Rushing to Take Sides in the RubyGems Fiasco Date: Sunday, Sep 28, 2025 Author: Justin Searls Original article: Link --- Overview of the RubyGems Conflict The Ruby ecosystem is embroiled in a complex dispute following recent actions by Ruby Central related to RubyGems governance, stirring a divisive debate within the community. Unlike most public discussions, the author expresses discomfort not primarily with the immediate issues, but with the one-sided nature of the public narrative and unresolved historical conflicts. The core tension involves key Ruby contributors remaining silent while another vocal faction, including Andre Arko and his associates, dominates public channels. This leaves many everyday Ruby developers confused and uncertain about the ecosystem's future. Justin states he has incomplete information and warns against simplistic narratives portraying open-source maintainers as victims of corporate oppression. --- Key Entities in the Ruby Ecosystem Governance Understanding the situation requires familiarity with three major components: Ruby: Created by Matz, maintained mainly by Japanese committers, supported by the Ruby Association, controls ruby-lang.org and the @ruby GitHub organization. RubyGems: The gem and bundler CLI tools hosted under the @rubygems GitHub organization. RubyGems.org: The website and host serving gem dependencies, operated by Ruby Central. These have historically been managed by different groups with overlapping control and poor coordination. Bundler, an essential dependency resolver, was created independently by Yehuda Katz and Carl Lerche, later led by Andre Arko. --- Historical Context and Controversies Early 2015–2017 Issues with Ruby Together and Andre Arko Ruby Together, a nonprofit founded by Andre Arko in 2015, aimed to fund maintenance by paying developers market rates (reportedly $200–$250/hour at one point). Initial website messaging was misleading, causing some donors to believe their funds supported well-known developers instead of mostly paying Andre himself. Andre proposed making Bundler support conditional on companies, like Heroku, funding Ruby Together, which was perceived as a pay-to-play tactic affecting ecosystem stability. A December 2016 leaked board meeting document revealed Ruby Together counting CDN usage as a cost they were bearing, suggesting intentions to rate-limit gem server access based on sponsorship, alarming the community for potential ecosystem hold-ups. In January 2017, Andre added a post-install message in Bundler prompting users to donate, sparking backlash and eventual removal. Public communications from Ruby Central clarified Ruby Together donations did not fund RubyGems.org operations, which Ruby Central fully funded and controlled. Andre accused Google Cloud Platform falsely of copying RubyGems software, threatening legal action; the claim was baseless. 2018–2024 Developments After tensions eased, Bundler was merged into RubyGems. Ruby Together roles and staff transitioned into Ruby Central. --- Recent 2025 Developments Andre Arko apparently forked Homebrew’s Portable Ruby without using GitHub’s fork feature, initially erasing Homebrew’s attribution, though a license file and later an explicit acknowledgment were added after prompting. Andre published a post claiming Ruby Together never demanded governance over RubyGems, yet historical actions (e.g., restricting committer access, removing contributor credits) suggest otherwise. Justin urges caution in rushing to judgment due to these complicated and unresolved historical dynamics. --- Closing Thoughts Justin highlights a long-simmering conflict behind the scenes with serious claims on both sides. He encourages the community and readers to withhold immediate conclusions and to consider the