Open Source

Articles about Open Source by Sebastian Bergmann

This image shows an old, grimy pressure gauge in the foreground of a machine room. Its black needle stands between five and six bar, in the middle of the section of the scale marked in red. Blurred pipes, valves and further gauges in red and blue light fill the background. The imagery captures the essence of the article: the problem sat in the red zone for a long time, and whether the system holds depends on the few people who maintain it.

22 October 2026

Hate does not fix vulnerabilities

The PHP releases of 21 October 2026 fix two critical vulnerabilities, and you should update now. The PHP Foundation itself calls the time the fix took a structural failure, one that was also caused by a lack of resources. The hate now being poured over PHP changes nothing about that; broader funding would.

A person's hands at a workbench: one holds a brass pipe fitting, the other writes on a clipboard with a red pencil, and more fittings stand on the table. A symbol of verification: to know whether a part is right, someone has to examine it and write down what they observed.

23 September 2026

When the diff is free

Symfony Language Tools no longer accepts pull requests, and most Laravel packages no longer accept issues. Both decisions rest on the same premise: the diff has become cheap. What remains scarce is an understanding of the problem, and the contribution that carries it best is a failing test.

The flag of the European Union and the German national flag flying side by side in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin.

2 September 2026

Digital sovereignty is written in PHP

Germany is spending €108 million to move its federal websites onto a PHP application; in 2025, The PHP Foundation received $730,534 in funding.

Sebastian Bergmann walks onto a stage through green and blue smoke, one hand raised in greeting, in front of a large screen that reads SEBASTIAN BERGMANN, CREATOR OF PHPUNIT next to a portrait of him.

27 August 2026

Succession, release cycle, and 26 years of PHPUnit

AFUP asked me what happens to PHPUnit if I stop, why there has been a new major version every year since 2017, and where I learned to think about testing.

A worn metal checklist card hangs in the cockpit of an aircraft in front of dimly glowing flight instruments. The card is engraved with a list titled BEFORE TAKEOFF, whose items read Flight Controls CHECKED, Takeoff Briefing REVIEWED and Cabin SECURE, followed by a dashed line reading CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF and the beginning of an AFTER TAKEOFF section.

19 August 2026

So you received a security report. Now what?

A guide for PHP project maintainers, from the PHP Foundation Ecosystem Security Team.

An unbroken red wax seal on an envelope. A visual metaphor for untouched tests: as long as the seal is intact, the contents are provably undisturbed.

22 July 2026

Untouched tests are half the proof

My favourite kind of bug fix only adds a new regression test and leaves every existing test untouched. I checked this claim against PHPUnit's own history: I learned the most from the counterexamples.

The image shows a colourful, chalky network of dots and connections on a black background. It is a playful visualisation of distributed, loosely coupled communities and thus fits perfectly as the mood for an article about the Fediverse.

18 January 2026

Open Source, Open Feeds: Mastodon and PeerTube as online spaces for the PHP community

With phpc.social and phpc.tv, the PHP community is building its own donation-funded online spaces in the Fediverse – free from algorithms and fascist tech bros.

The image depicts a symbolic scene that represents cooperation and team spirit. The focus is on several hands arranged in a circle from above, working together to bring wooden puzzle pieces together. The hands belong to different people wearing different clothes. Some light-coloured shirts and grey sleeves are visible. The scene takes place on a green meadow, conveying a sense of naturalness and openness. The light-coloured puzzle pieces represent the individual components that must be put together to form a larger whole.

7 January 2026

How PHP and its ecosystem test each other

PHP tests Laravel, Symfony, PHPUnit, and more every night. PHPUnit tests PHP. This is Open Source collaboration at work.

The image shows a row of electrical circuit breakers with wooden letter blocks placed on top of each breaker. The blocks spell out the phrase “BLACKOUT.” In front of the circuit breakers, there is a lit candle, symbolizing the situation of a power outage or blackout where electric power is unavailable and people rely on candles for light. The setting appears to be indoors, and the candle's flame provides a warm light illuminating the breakers and the surrounding area. The image visually represents the concept of losing electrical power with the word “blackout” and the candlelight.

11 November 2025

Open Source Blackout

Are you prepared for a world in which your projects freeze, deployments stall, and tech giants can no longer rely on free community-run infrastructure?

The image shows a wooden staircase leading through dunes to the beach, running towards a sunrise or sunset. The years from 2026 to 2035 are painted large and white on the individual steps, as if symbolising the path to the future. At the end of the staircase, where the light is strongest, the journey seems to lead into the coming years, while the wide sky and calm sea in the background convey a peaceful, expansive mood.

22 October 2025

A look ahead to 2035

I discuss key issues for the future relating to ethics, digital sovereignty, Open Source, and web standards.

A person wearing a backpack stands on a rocky ledge overlooking a range of green mountains under a partly cloudy blue sky.

8 June 2025

30 Years of PHP, 25 Years of PHPUnit

I look back on 30 years of open source innovations.

The image shows a panoramic view of a harbour with a train on an elevated railway bridge in the foreground. On the left is a modern building with a striking glass façade, which is the Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg. In the background, several ships and cranes can be seen, indicating port activity. The weather is cloudy but bright, suggesting late afternoon or early evening. The scene appears both calm and industrial.

11 March 2024

PHPUnit Code Sprint: March 2024

I recollect my experience at the PHPUnit project's most recent code sprint.

The image shows a concrete wall with a rough surface and visible horizontal lines and joints. Shadows fall on it, forming patterns, presumably from plants or leaves. The shadows create an interesting interplay of light and dark, giving the image a calm, natural atmosphere.

1 February 2019

Blast from the Past

Package managers are worthwhile targets, even if no one uses them anymore. Background information on the breach of the PEAR infrastructure of the PHP project.

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