curl's August deprecations signal how critical open-source infrastructure manages technical debt at scale

curl will remove TLS-SRP support in August 2026 and plans to deprecate SMB protocol support, decisions reflecting how ubiquitous libraries sustain themselves across billions of devices. Both features saw minimal real-world adoption since their introduction. The removals reduce CVE surface, backend compatibility work, and maintenance overhead for a 28-year-old codebase that underpins vast swaths of networked software. For most users, the changes are inconsequential; for teams still relying on either protocol, the timeline is firm.