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I would love to begin using this system, but the licensing is giving me serious pause. While most of the software is under the AGPLv3, the Commercial License se
by RandomBK 3y ago
I would love to begin using this system, but the licensing is giving me serious pause.
While most of the software is under the AGPLv3, the Commercial License section of the README [0] implies that the company takes on a fairly broad interpretation of the AGPL.
In particular, the line "[...] to build a feature on top of Windmill, to comply with AGPLv3 your product must be AGPLv3 [...]" seems to imply the company aligns with the stance taken by Google and other companies: that even calling the application via API is enough to trigger copyleft [1].
This implies that if I were to build a sign-up form that triggers a Windmill workflow in the backend, my entire application would either need to be AGPLv3 or I would need a commercial license.
That's perfectly reasonable, as it means any non-AGPL use will have to contribute back to Windmill via a commercial license. However, it does mean positioning this as an "Fully Open-source" alternative to Airflow is only technically correct. This is much closer in practice to "source available" than how most developers would think as "open source".
If this isn't how Windmill wants their license interpreted, I highly encourage clarifying things.
[0] https://github.com/windmill-labs/windmill#commercial-license https://github.com/windmill-labs/windmill#commercial-license
[1] https://opensource.google/documentation/reference/using/agpl-policy https://opensource.google/documentation/reference/using/agpl...
- rubenfiszel 3y agoSorry for the lack of clarity. By product we mean white-labelling windmill, not triggering a script or flow by api.
- RandomBK 3y agoGot it! That's great to hear. It'd be great to explicitly clarify that in the README :) Out of curiosity: Have you considered alternative licenses like SSPL or the Elastic license, which make a clear(er) delineation between whitelabelling/hosting vs simply using the application? I'm sure I'm not the first person to have written off Windmill because of the AGPL.
- rubenfiszel 3y agoThose licenses are not open-source and likely to be more restrictive than what we currently offer. It was important for me to be truly open-source. If you are using windmill as a whole, you're free to use it however you please with the AGPL but for customers with doubts, we do sell an enterprise/commercial license.