The Strategic Pivot in Open Source and the Future of Software Licensing

My relationship with open source dates from early 2000. Following the trends of these years, I noticed in the rapidly evolving technology landscape the trend among companies reassessing their commitment to traditional open-source models. These firms have shifted towards more restrictive licensing to safeguard their innovations while still trying to maintain a semblance of open-source ethos. This strategic realignment sheds light on the challenges and opportunities within the open-source community and hints at a new direction for software licensing.

Adapting to New Realities

For example, Elastic and HashiCorp, once celebrated for their open-source contributions, have transitioned away from fully open-source licenses. IMHO, this change is primarily a response to the complexities introduced by cloud computing giants, who have commodified open-source software without contributing back to the community or the original developers. This practice has threatened the sustainability of open-source projects, prompting companies to seek a balance between openness and commercial viability.?

Protecting Innovations

The primary driver for this shift is protecting proprietary technology from being leveraged by competitors and huge cloud service providers without fair compensation. By adopting more restrictive licenses, some companies aim to prevent their software from being repackaged and sold as part of more extensive cloud offerings, ensuring they can continue to innovate and support their products.

A New Breed of Open Source Licenses

This pivot points to the emergence of new open-source licenses that offer a compromise: they provide some level of access and collaboration typical of open-source ecosystems while imposing restrictions on commercial use to protect the creator's intellectual property. These hybrid models are becoming increasingly popular as they offer a pathway for companies to engage with the open-source community, contribute to technology advancement, and maintain a competitive edge.

Implications for the Open Source Model

The move done by so many companies signals a potential trend where companies embrace open source not just as a model for development and distribution but as a strategic asset that needs safeguarding. This approach could redefine open-source contributions, with more organizations adopting hybrid licensing models stipulating how their software can be used commercially.?

Our plans for Opensourcing some QriarLabs components

It's important to note that decreasing the quality of open-source versions to force the industry to purchase the "enterprise" version, IMHO, is the worst possible approach; we know that we will never use it as such. I can see many vendors doing that, although I think the "Open-Core" is infinitely fairer, as you can give part of the capabilities with quality and generate the chance for customers to be happy to get what they need according to their scope, eventually if what they need to be available in a closed and proprietary version, I believe that it's a fascinating model, win-win for both.

We use a substantial number of open-source projects in our product development, improving and extending them when possible. Although it's part of our plan to give those improvements back to the community, we are having this discussion: What is better: Open our source codes and eventually have to close them, resulting in changing the licenses? Or finding a productive way to collaborate with critical projects, which we are helping with, and using part of those improvements to pave the way for our "proprietary" products. We are currently using the second alternative but closely following how the big guys are moving ahead with new ways to keep the incredible collaboration that open source brings to the market and the innovation while keeping profitable and sustainable companies. It's yet a hermetic challenge for everyone.?

Conclusion

The shifts in companies' open-source licensing highlight a pragmatic response to the challenges posed by the current technological and competitive landscape. This evolution suggests a future where open-source licensing is more nuanced, blending the foundational principles of open collaboration with the necessities of protecting innovation and ensuring business sustainability. As the industry grapples with these issues, we may see more companies navigating this delicate balance, shaping the open-source model for the next generation of software development.