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Imo the key difference here is that they're owning the decision and not trying to paper over the fact that it is no longer OSI Open Source. The three year chan

Imo the key difference here is that they're owning the decision and not trying to paper over the fact that it is no longer OSI Open Source. The three year change is also a big deal in my mind. Would make me a lot more comfortable to adopt knowing it is absolutely guaranteed to become OSI Open Source later.

stingraycharles 7y ago
My point is that they are able to own the decision only because the public opinion has accepted it as a new reality. If CockroachDB was the first OSS database company to do this, they would have a much harder time explaining their rationale. MongoDB et al have paved the way for them.
- bigiain 7y ago
  Completely agree. Cockroach also have the benefit of hindsight to avoid some of the problems Mongo/Redis et al encountered. Calling this a "Business Source Licence" avoids the terminology problems so many people complained about with Mongo's perhaps badly chosen "commons clause" rider on top of (and fundamentally changing) a well know open source license. I think the rolling three year time limit is probably a smart reaction to some of the complaints people have about other companies attempts to tie down some of the rights while providing assurance that there's at least be an option open in the future no matter what happens to the company. I wish them well with this.
gtirloni 7y ago
I don't like the change but I understand their point of view. It's also commendable how Cockroack Labs has conducted this in a professional manner.
- bigiain 7y ago
  Could you expand of what it is you don't like about this change? Without having read and fully understood the actual text of their new license and comparing it to the old one, if we take them at their word where they say "The one and only thing that you cannot do is offer a commercial version of CockroachDB as a service without buying a license." - I find it pretty hard to find anything to "not like" about it... Perhaps the ideological purity of "open source" is being disrupted here (I suspect Stallman isn't a fan of this), but from a pragmatic perspective, it gives me all the rights I need to use it in any way I choose, except to exploit project without contributing back via a license.

stingraycharles 7y ago

My point is that they are able to own the decision only because the public opinion has accepted it as a new reality. If CockroachDB was the first OSS database company to do this, they would have a much harder time explaining their rationale. MongoDB et al have paved the way for them.

bigiain 7y ago
Completely agree. Cockroach also have the benefit of hindsight to avoid some of the problems Mongo/Redis et al encountered. Calling this a "Business Source Licence" avoids the terminology problems so many people complained about with Mongo's perhaps badly chosen "commons clause" rider on top of (and fundamentally changing) a well know open source license. I think the rolling three year time limit is probably a smart reaction to some of the complaints people have about other companies attempts to tie down some of the rights while providing assurance that there's at least be an option open in the future no matter what happens to the company. I wish them well with this.

gtirloni 7y ago

I don't like the change but I understand their point of view. It's also commendable how Cockroack Labs has conducted this in a professional manner.

bigiain 7y ago
Could you expand of what it is you don't like about this change? Without having read and fully understood the actual text of their new license and comparing it to the old one, if we take them at their word where they say "The one and only thing that you cannot do is offer a commercial version of CockroachDB as a service without buying a license." - I find it pretty hard to find anything to "not like" about it... Perhaps the ideological purity of "open source" is being disrupted here (I suspect Stallman isn't a fan of this), but from a pragmatic perspective, it gives me all the rights I need to use it in any way I choose, except to exploit project without contributing back via a license.