Machines at OSUOSL at risk

Refs: https://osuosl.org/blog/osl-future/

by Lance Albertson on Wed, Apr 30 2025

I am writing to inform you about a critical and time-sensitive situation facing the Open Source Lab. Over the past several years, we have been operating at a deficit due to a decline in corporate donations. While OSU's College of Engineering (CoE) has generously filled this gap, recent changes in university funding have led to a significant reduction in CoE's budget. As a result, our current funding model is no longer sustainable and CoE needs to find ways to cut programs.

Earlier this week, I was informed that unless we secure $250,000 in committed funds, the OSL will be forced to shut down later this year. I have reached out to our largest corporate sponsor and they are working to increase their support as we update our contract, but that still may not be enough.

If OSUOSL shuts down, this will put at risk for Node.js:

• Linux arm64 release machine (note we're already losing the Equinix Metal arm test resources but hopefully will be able to replace with an alternative provider via Works on Arm).
• All Linux ppc64le test and release machines.
• Half of our AIX resources (we have redundancy with some in IBM Cloud).

No file, test, or entry point is named. Start by reviewing the build infrastructure for the Linux arm64, ppc64le, and AIX machines, along with issue 3975 and the referenced OSUOSL notice. Done would require an agreed path to preserve or replace the at-risk resources.