We launched GitHub Sponsors in 2019 with a simple belief: the people who build and maintain open source software deserve to be supported for their work. Since then, tens of thousands of sponsors—individuals and organizations alike—have turned that belief into action.

We’re proud to announce that more than $100 million has been invested in open source maintainers and projects through GitHub Sponsors. This milestone belongs to the developers, organizations, and maintainers who have invested in a more sustainable open source ecosystem, and it signals that the way we value open source is changing.

How we got here

GitHub Sponsors started with individuals. We wanted to make it possible for any developer to directly support the maintainers they depend on. In 2023, we made organization-funded sponsorships generally available and saw organizations like Shopify step up to fund their dependencies at scale. The program expanded to 103 regions, partnered with Patreon, and introduced tools like bulk sponsorships and invoice payments to make it easy to participate.

The result: a global funding network that supports over 70,000 maintainers and organizations, and includes more than 280,000 sponsors spanning individual developers to Fortune 500 companies.

The pace is accelerating, too. The first $10 million took nearly two years. The most recent $10 million took just five months.

The people behind the number

While $100 million is a meaningful number, the real measure of impact is what it’s made possible for real people.

GitHub Sponsors changed how I think about open source. It gave me a direct, sustainable way to fund the time it takes to build and maintain projects, instead of treating it like side work. That has let me invest more consistently in the projects and build with a much longer-term view. Thanks to GitHub Sponsors, I am able to give back to our community, build a business, and actually make a difference in OSS.

Kelvin Tegelaar, Maintainer, Lime Networks

Shopify invests in open source because our platform, our merchants, and our engineering culture all depend on a healthy open source ecosystem. GitHub Sponsors gives us a direct way to support the maintainers and projects that move the industry forward, from foundational technologies to smaller tools that make developers’ daily work better. For us, sponsorship is both practical and values-driven: it helps sustain the software we rely on while strengthening our connection to the people building it.

Shopify

As strong advocates of open source software, Mercedes-Benz recognizes the incredible contributions made by developers and maintainers worldwide. Through GitHub Sponsors, we aim to support and empower these dedicated individuals and projects that drive innovation, collaboration, and the advancement of open source. By providing financial assistance to these projects, we hope to enable them to dedicate more time and resources to their impactful work, thereby making open source more sustainable and contributing to the overall health and longevity of the projects. We extend our deep gratitude to all the participants and celebrate their dedication. Together, we can continue to foster a vibrant and sustainable open source ecosystem that benefits our teams, developers and users alike.

Dr. Wolfgang Gehring, OSPO Lead & FOSS Ambassador, Mercedes-Benz Tech Innovation GmbH

GitHub Sponsors has meant many things for me and my open source. First, it showed me people’s appreciation and motivated me. Then it showed me I could and should figure out how to do more open source. And then, for the past years, it has also allowed me to sub-sponsor many of the open source tools that power mine, to share that appreciation and support.

Sebastián Ramírez, tiangolo

My projects wouldn’t be what they are today without GitHub Sponsors. Sponsorships allowed me to quit my job and work on them full time. GitHub Sponsors opened my eyes to the opportunities available for passionate people working on projects that people care about.

Caleb Porzio, Livewire & Alpine.js

Open source careers shouldn’t depend on geography or circumstance. They should depend on the value of the work. Increasingly, the community is making that possible.

What we’ve learned

Building GitHub Sponsors over the past seven years has taught us a few things:

Organizations move the needle. In 2022, nearly 40% of sponsorship funding came from organizations, with each organization-funded sponsorship worth an average of nearly 15x more than the average individual sponsorship. As more companies recognize their dependence on open source, this share continues to grow.

Reducing friction matters. Every time we’ve made it easier to sponsor (e.g. adding invoice payments, expanding regions, enabling bulk sponsorships) we’ve seen a corresponding increase in funding. The demand to support open source is there. We aim to make that easy to do.

What’s next

This milestone proves that when the community shows up for open source, the impact is real. But the work isn’t done. The open source funding gap is still enormous, many critical projects remain underfunded, and maintainer burnout continues to be one of the biggest risks to the software supply chain. This $100 million is proof that the community can change how open source is sustained, one sponsorship at a time.

The best way to keep this momentum going? Start sponsoring the projects you depend on or encourage your organization to do the same.

How you can get involved

Behind the scenes, maintainers are working daily to make open source better for all of us. If you or your organization depend on open source — and you almost certainly do — there’s no better time to invest in the people who make it possible.

Visit the Sponsors Explore page to discover which maintainers you depend on and start supporting them today. If you’re a maintainer and haven’t set up your Sponsors profile yet, visit github.com/sponsors to get started.

Thank you to every sponsor and every maintainer who has been part of this $100 million journey. This is what happens when a community decides that open source is worth investing in. We can’t wait to see where it goes from here.

The post $100 million for open source: A milestone built by the community appeared first on The GitHub Blog.

Microsoft has pushed back the retirement of the -Credential parameter in Exchange Online PowerShell to December 2026. The extended timeline provides IT teams with additional breathing room to update scripts and automation workflows before Microsoft permanently removes support for the legacy authentication method.

The -Credential parameter in Exchange Online PowerShell is an option that allows administrators and automation scripts to connect to Exchange Online by providing a username and password stored in a PowerShell credential object. It is commonly used for unattended scripts because it enables authentication without requiring interactive sign-in.

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced plans to retire the -Credential parameter in July 2026. The parameter relies on the legacy Resource Owner Password Credentials (ROPC) authentication flow, which is incompatible with modern security features such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) and Conditional Access. Microsoft says this retirement is part of its broader effort to improve cloud security and encourage organizations to adopt more secure, modern authentication methods.

Why is the- Credential parameter being removed?

In response to customer feedback, Microsoft has delayed the retirement of the -Credential parameter until December 2026. At that point, the parameter will be removed from the Connect-ExchangeOnline and Connect-IppsSession cmdlets in the Exchange Online PowerShell module.

The -Credential parameter will continue to work in existing versions of the Exchange Online PowerShell module, but it will no longer be available in future releases. Consequently, Exchange Online admins and organizations that rely on automated scripts, scheduled tasks, or integrations using this authentication method will need to update their workflows.

“If your organization uses the -Credential parameter in PowerShell scripts or automation workflows connecting to Exchange Online or Security & Compliance PowerShell, those scripts will break when you update to an Exchange Online PowerShell module version released beginning December 2026,” the Exchange team explained.

Migration guidance for Exchange Online admins

Microsoft recommends that organizations begin reviewing any Exchange Online PowerShell scripts or automated processes that still rely on the -Credential parameter and plan a migration ahead of its retirement deadline. The company advises that early testing and updating of scripts can help prevent unexpected disruptions when newer module versions are deployed.

The replacement method depends on how Exchange Online is being accessed. Administrators who connect interactively should use modern authentication with MFA, and unattended automation running outside Azure should move to app-only authentication. For workloads hosted in Azure, Microsoft recommends managed identities because they remove the need to store usernames, passwords, or other sensitive information.

The post Microsoft Delays Exchange Online PowerShell Credential Parameter Retirement appeared first on Petri IT Knowledgebase.

Jimothy, the short-spined Seattle raccoon, has become a global sensation whose likeness has been immortalized in artwork, clothing, songs and tattoos — and now a video game created in the creature’s hometown.

Tech enthusiast and entrepreneur Chris Pirillo launched an 8-bit NES-style video game called “Jimothy” this weekend in which players can control the movements of the critter as he raids trash cans, crosses streets to the park, sneaks past the paparazzi, and climbs to the safety of a big tree.

Pirillo says the missions are pulled straight from Jimothy’s real life. No doubt the animal is busy these days trying to dodge curious onlookers who are hoping to capture the next photo or video that feeds the masses on social media.

The viral Jimothy sensation took off last week when Kiana Hall spotted the raccoon in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood and posted a video on Instagram — viewed by millions since — asking the question heard around the world: “What am I looking at?”

An earlier video of Jimothy, captured by a home security camera and posted on Reddit, ignited further curiosity and adoration, and now Reddit is flooded with sightings, memes, artwork, food, crafts, poetry and more. The Mariners put a Jimothy mascot in the Salmon Run. There’s even a Lego Jimothy.

Pirillo told GeekWire the game idea came to him on Saturday afternoon after seeing so many creatives flood his feeds with their own Jimothy fan art. He started to build a not-so-live tracker and realized it was a not-so-great idea. He hopes internet creativity is enough of a fix for the Jimothy-curious.

“This game is as close as any of us should ever get to him,” the game site states. “If you find yourself in his neighborhood: don’t go looking for him, don’t feed him, don’t try to touch him, and don’t crowd him for a photo.”

The game is easy enough to play, with challenges that are reminiscent of classic 1980s games “Frogger” and “Donkey Kong.”

Pirillo’s “Vibe Arcade” is loaded with other games he’s created. Earlier this year he vibe-coded a Resume Analyzer app and a pre-rejection letter generator called Dear Applicant to channel his frustrations with searching for a job.

Pirillo credits AI with changing the speed and ease with which a moment can go viral and be captured in new and creative ways.

“I remember when every big moment had a video game. But by the time a studio could create a video game around a meme pre-AI, the meme’s energy would have dissipated,” he said. “We are now at a day and age (certainly with AI as a tool) where almost literally anybody of any age or tech experience level can bring full-fledged experiences to life in just a few hours. We can simply talk our solutions into existence. It’s astounding.”

Pirillo built the game as a single HTML page, pitting OpenAI GPT 5.6 against Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5. One of the bigger challenges was getting the look of Jimothy right, as multiple AI models kept returning regular-looking raccoons.

Pirillo said he looks forward to sharing more about it all during a free vibe-coding community workshop in Seattle this Saturday.

His final takeaway for anyone looking to get in on the Jimothy hype — or whatever creature emerges next — is to not wait for the moment to pass.

“While it’s never been easier to make something, it’s also never been more challenging to get attention,” he said.

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Cloud Security Podcast Episode 285: Defending Against the AI DDoS

Is internet trust fundamentally broken? On this episode, former Google "Click Fraud Czar" and Rekon CEO Shuman Ghosemajumder joins hosts Tim Peacock and Nolan Karpinski to trace the evolution of automated fraud—from Gmail's early invite days to the origin of "credential stuffing."

Discover why today's threat landscape feels like an AI DDoS, how cybercriminals exploit the "Smart Cow" resource model, and why running security models on-device is our best shot at defending against scaled AI slop without sacrificing data privacy.

What you'll learn:

• 🧠 The "Smart Cow" Problem: How advanced exploit tools are built by the few and commoditized for the masses.

• 💻 On-Device Defense: Why local, lightweight AI models are the future of communications security.

• 🛡️ The Paranoia Protocol: Tim and Shuman's practical advice on validating identities in the age of deepfakes.

👉 Subscribe for your weekly dose of cloud security insights, piping hot every Monday! Watch the full episode on YouTube at youtube.com/@CloudSecPodcast.

Download audio: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/cloudsecuritypodcast/2026-07-07-GSP-Ep285-1.0_AUDIO.mp3?dest-id=2641814

Your database should be part of the same development process as the rest of your application, with source control and automation for validation and deployment. Recent releases of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), the SQL Database Projects extension for Visual Studio Code, SqlPackage, and the Microsoft.Build.Sql SDK add capabilities for the SQL projects ecosystem focused on developing, evolving, and deploying SQL databases.

Whether you are starting from an existing database, adding a database to a deployment pipeline, or refining a mature SQL project, the following updates make incorporating your database with your overall DevOps strategy more efficient.

System database references in SSMS

SSMS 22.8 adds system database references for SQL projects. Database references let a project use objects defined outside its local source files, whether those objects are in the same database or another database. The new system database packages for master and msdb let you reference system objects without manually managing the associated database artifacts.

Add a package reference from the command line with dotnet add package. For example, add the SQL Server 2025 master database package:

dotnet add package Microsoft.SqlServer.Dacpacs.Master --version 170.0.4

System database references can also be viewed and added from Solution Explorer in SSMS 22.8. Because the system database references are done through package references, no additional configuration is required to build the project with the .NET SDK in CI/CD pipelines.

Enabling projects to reference system objects with database references

Other recent SSMS releases added additional capabilities across the SQL project lifecycle through the Database DevOps (preview) workload. When you create a project, select its target platform in the new project dialog. The target platform determines the Microsoft SQL version against which the project validates syntax. After creating a project, use the project properties editor to change the target platform, configure code analysis, and define SQLCMD variables. SQLCMD variables resolve only at deployment time, allowing deployment-specific behavior without changing the project source.

New SQL project dialog in SQL Server Management Studio 22.8

SSMS 22.7 introduced schema compare and SQL formatting. Learn more in Power up in SSMS 22.7: Schema compare and SQL formatting

Schema compare in SSMS gives an object-level view of differences between databases and projects

Update to SSMS 22.8 and explore the SSMS 22 release notes and database references documentation.

SQL projects in Visual Studio Code

The 1.6.2 release of the SQL Database Projects extension for Visual Studio Code continues to improve the SQL project development experience in the cross-platform and mutli-functional VS Code environment. Install or update to version 1.6.2 to use the latest capabilities.

Project IntelliSense suggests object names from your SQL project model and enables Go to Definition and refactoring actions. When you refactor an object, Visual Studio Code updates the local `.sql` files and records the change in refactorlog.xml. Deploying your SQL project from an IDE or CLI, including Visual Studio Code and SqlPackage, uses this log to apply "sp_rename" and "ALTER SCHEMA ... TRANSFER" when required. This preserves the intent of your change during deployment instead of treating a renamed object as a drop and create operation. For more details on how SQL projects track and deploy these changes, see the SQL projects refactoring documentation.

Review the cascade of changes when updating the name of a table in a SQL project

When you create an object through SQL project explorer, the extension can automatically organize its file by schema and object type. This organizational pattern is the most prevalent standard, although some teams have alternative structures. To manually organize the files only, set "sqlDatabaseProjects.autoCreateFolders" to false in Visual Studio Code settings.

Extract an existing database to a SQL project with the SqlPackage CLI

The 170.4 release of SqlPackage in June 2026 adds a one-command path to turn an existing database into its full code definition. Set the ExtractTarget property to SqlProject during extract to reverse engineer the database into a Microsoft.Build.Sql project instead of the default .dacpac output format. The generated project contains individual .sql files for database objects and a .sqlproj file for database-level settings.

The generated SQL project can be iteratively developed, compiled to a .dacpac with dotnet build, or checked into source control as the foundation for database CI/CD.

For example, use the following command to create a SQL project from a database connection string in the `AdventureWorks` folder:

sqlpackage /a:extract /scs:"yourconnectionstring" /tf:AdventureWorks /p:ExtractTarget=SqlProject

The generated project is identical to the same SQL project you would create from that database in a graphical development environment:

AdventureWorks extracted to a SQL project, automatically organized by schema and objec type

For the complete release details, see the SqlPackage release notes.

Database settings in the Microsoft.Build.Sql project SDK

Microsoft.Build.Sql SDK 2.2.0, released with DacFx 170.4 in June 2026, adds support for automatic index compaction. This database-level feature is in preview for Azure SQL Database and SQL database in Fabric, where it compacts indexes in the background with minimal overhead. For more information, see Stop defragmenting and start living: Introducing auto index compaction

SQL projects can define database-level settings as properties in the .sqlproj file, including:

• Change tracking
• Query Store stale query threshold
• Compatibility mode

Microsoft.Build.Sql 2.2.0 adds the AutomaticIndexCompaction property so you can enable or disable automatic index compaction as part of a SQL project deployment. Database settings in the project file make these deployment decisions visible in source control and repeatable across your environments. Review the SQL projects properties documentation for more available settings.

Provide feedback and learn more

To learn about the future planned work and avenues for feedback across the SQL projects ecosystem, visit the SQL projects roadmap.

Use Microsoft.Build.Sql projects to branch, build, commit, and deploy your database. Get started from an existing database or create a new SQL project. Learn more about SQL projects as part of CI/CD in Azure DevOps from a recent blog post in Azure SQL Dev Corner and associated Data Exposed episode.