In this New Stack Makers episode, Ashley Williams, founder and CEO of axo, highlights how the software world depends on open-source code, which is largely maintained by unpaid volunteers. She likens this to a CVS relying on volunteer-run shipping companies, pointing out how unsettling that might be for customers. The conversation focuses on open-source maintainers’ reluctance to be seen as "suppliers" of software, an idea explored in a 2022 blog post by Thomas Depierre. Many maintainers reject the label, as there is no contractual obligation to support the software they provide.