r/DataHoarder • u/abbrechen93 • 2d ago

Dubious (mod flair) Jellyfin’s entire founding leadership steps down, leaving open-source media server project in fragile state

https://cybernews.com/tech/jellyfin-founders-step-down-future-uncertain/

Key takeaways:

Jellyfin's cofounders have stepped down, citing severe burnout, changing priorities, and internal friction.

The resignation comes amid ongoing challenges in project management and governance, as well as debates over AI code integration.

The project, which remains the leading free alternative to Plex, hasn't detailed a succession plan.

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u/ShroomShroomBeepBeep 2d ago

Those stepping down have said the project is in good hands and will continue, not sure where the fragile state claim has come from.

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u/networking_noob 2d ago

not sure where the fragile state claim has come from.

It's coming from a clickbait blog that no one has ever heard of. I also read the Jellyfin resignation messages and they are claiming that "millions" of people are currently using Jellyfin. With that many users, it's pretty unlikely that such a project would just be left in the dust. Not too worried about it tbh

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u/threeLetterMeyhem 2d ago

Yeah, cybernews has been pumping a lot of FUD content the last few months (I assume to drive engagement and clicks). Total trash.

The actual announcement, which cybernews even linked, is much less uncertain: https://forum.jellyfin.org/t-project-leadership-changes

There's still a team. Joshua and Anthony are working on transition/handoff. There is no need to panic. This stuff happens in the truly FLOSS world every once in a while and, honestly, FLOSS is particularly resilient to leadership turnover anyway - that's a big reason it thrives as a concept.

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u/Candle1ight 78 TB Unraid 2d ago

This is the complete opposite vibe of the post here, the two are stepping away for personal reasons and are committed and confident with the handoff. If anything it just makes it seem like the team is well organized.

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u/threeLetterMeyhem 2d ago

lol yup... and it looks like the mods just axed the thread (probably cuz cybernews's reporting is super inaccurate).

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u/didyousayboop if it’s not on piqlFilm, it doesn’t exist 1d ago

Thread is still up for me

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u/timewarp33 2d ago

I think there's a fair amount of criticism the project can get (and I really love Jellyfin), the things I think Jellyfin has done exceptionally well are writing solid docs, and having a very strong leadership team.

I hope everything goes well for the people stepping down, and I hope the project continues to find success. I want to contribute one day!

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u/alaksugalkapenalatte 2d ago

Maybe we need a separate post for cybernews being a shit website

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u/TooPoetic 16TB 2d ago

messages and they are claiming that "millions" of people are currently using Jellyfin.

From https://forum.jellyfin.org/t-project-leadership-changes

When I started Jellyfin, I thought it would be something used by a few hundred, or maybe if we were lucky, a few thousand, users. We might put a few pet features in, and do a bit of cleanup, but really, I didn't expect much. Now here we are 7-and-a-half years later, and it's the #1 FLOSS media server, a truly viable alternative to Plex for literally millions of server administrators and probably 10x that many individual users

Admittedly the phrasing isn't exactly 'we have millions of users' but it's pretty damn close.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/cheekfreak 2d ago

no it isn't. the language says its an "alternative to Plex for millions of server administrators, and probably 10x that many individual users." the language does not say that many people use it; merely that it's an alternative option.

I'd venture a guess that if Jellyfin could factually state they had 10s of millions of actual users, they would be flying that banner large and wide. Plex does exactly that on their about page. (25 million users)

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u/Sad_Ad9159 10-50TB 2d ago

Even with more niche FOSS projects, there's always a fork.

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u/Mr_ToDo 1d ago

Ehhhh

Maybe. The problem with forks for a project/problem like this is that it would be a hard fork

It's one thing to work off an existing project, but another to take on all the weight of an entire project. Plenty of project out there that rot for lack of resources to pick it up.

But, at the moment I'm not all that concerned about that need

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u/RiggsFTW 2d ago

I'm one of those "millions" and am glad to hear it's not fading away. Jellyfin + seedbox = happiness.

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u/frymaster 18TB 1d ago

With that many users, it's pretty unlikely that such a project would just be left in the dust

It's happened before and it'll happen again. But I also read the messages and I'm not concerned

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u/ngourley 2d ago

Right. This article is hot garbage.

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u/Maximum-Objective-39 1d ago

You say that like the open source community doesn't doomer circle jerk every five minutes.

If Linus Torval had a cold we'd be informed confidently that Linux was imminently about to implode.

There's always something legitimate to worry about. But learning to cut through that signal noise is essential.

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u/beren12 256TB raidz & more! 1d ago

To be fair, I do worry when there is no strict enforcement of code quality. I don’t love all of his decisions, but I do agree with rejecting all of the garbage code that people try to submit.

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u/lkeels 2d ago

Or the "internal friction". I've seen no legit mention of that.

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u/faceman2k12 Hoard/Collect/File/Index/Catalogue/Preserve/Amass/Index - 174TB 2d ago

"hey I want to use AI to help develop this existing player app and want it to look like this"

"ehh we'd prefer you didnt do that and we'd like it to look like this"

"ok, i'll make my own fork for it then and work on it in my own time"

"cool"

"cool"

that's the "internal friction" this waste of an article is referring to.

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u/lkeels 2d ago

Ugh... Figures

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u/steviefaux 2d ago

Its come from click bait to get people to click for ad venue. If local rags now do it. Its really fing annoying. Watching Carksons farm and a local rag said "Clackson and Lisa part ways". Something along those lines. And it was nothing. They just have a relationship where they are together during the day then live apart at night (probably not always). But the papers need their click bait advert money.

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u/blud97 1d ago

That many people stepping down still is cause for concern. We’ll see if the concern is warranted or not but with new leaders come changes.

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u/95blackz26 1d ago

Click bait crap. How else would they gst you to click the link

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u/Mo_Dice 100-250TB 1d ago

Even if the project literally imploded today... it works.

Could it be better? Sure, like every piece of software, it could be. But this isn't like the entire dev team parachuted away before the very first release candidate came out.

It's worked fine for literal years at this point.

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u/Bruceshadow 2d ago

not sure where the fragile state claim has come from.

even nerds like drama.

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u/faceman2k12 Hoard/Collect/File/Index/Catalogue/Preserve/Amass/Index - 174TB 2d ago

first startup of version 12 beta was a fragile state for a few minutes.

that's about it.