I’m so tired of “Ai big number” headlines. 100+ packages - but how many good ones? (Genuinely, I don’t know, as I don’t the recognize those listed.)
There might be a bit confusion. A package maintainer does not (necessarily) author the packages (the source code of the projects they contain), but typically maintains build scripts and security patches for upstream packages maintained by their authors. This is necessary because build systems and scripts are complex and packages from one distro would usually not fit into another one.
In other words, most code he/she produces are build scripts, and testing and adapting updates. And yes, this is still a lot of work.
There might be a bit confusion. A package maintainer does not (necessarily) author the packages (the source code of the projects they contain), but typically maintains build scripts and security patches for upstream packages maintained by their authors. This is necessary because build systems and scripts are complex and packages from one distro would usually not fit into another one.
In other words, most code he/she produces are build scripts, and testing and adapting updates. And yes, this is still a lot of work.