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KubeSphere kills open source edition [theregister.com]:

KubeSphere has become the latest service to abruptly yank an open source edition of a product, triggering outcry from users.

An announcement was posted [github.com] in the project's repository stating: "Effective immediately ... we will suspend the download links for the KubeSphere open source version and cease providing free technical support.

"We are fully aware that this may cause inconvenience to some users, and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused. However, we believe that by concentrating our resources, we can provide users with more professional, stable, and comprehensive commercial-grade services and support."

KubeSphere is "a distributed operating system for cloud-native application management, using Kubernetes as its kernel." It is also, according to the project's website, "a CNCF-certified Kubernetes platform, 100 percent open source, built and improved by the community."

Effectively, KubeSphere simplifies the management of Kubernetes, which can be unwieldy when it comes to setup and configuration.

One of the founding members of the KubeSphere team, having left KubeSphere developer QingCloud the previous day, posted [github.com] some of the possible reasoning behind the move: "In recent years, repeated violations of the open source license – by third parties repackaging and monetizing the project – have caused tangible impact on QingCloud's interests.

"While the source code remains available under open source norms, discontinuing the out-of-the-box distributions is, in my view, a challenging adjustment for today's collaborative open source ecosystem.

"Still, as someone who once helped steer this journey, I respect the decision."

• A year on, Valkey charts path to v9 after break from Redis [theregister.com]
• Redis 'returns' to open source with AGPL license [theregister.com]
• How's that open source licensing coming along? That well, huh? [theregister.com]
• Majority of Redis users considering alternatives after less permissive licensing move [theregister.com]

Peter Smalls, the general manager of Cloud Native at SUSE, was more critical. In a statement to El Reg, he wrote, "SUSE, with over 30 years of open source commitment, firmly believes that sustainable innovation thrives through genuine openness, collaboration, and enabling customer choice. KubeSphere's abrupt shift away from its open source edition, despite citing challenges, undermines the vital trust essential for a healthy open source ecosystem and has rightly triggered upset within its community. Moves such as this represent the potential erosion of predictability and trust needed in the open source community."

The code's license specifically forbids commercial use of the source without explicit permission or a commercial license.

In the GitHub post, the KubeSphere team appeared to blame the rapid uptake of AI in the tech industry and subsequent changes to the infrastructure layer. So "to adapt to the new era, further enhance product capabilities and service quality, and focus on core technology R&D and the optimization of commercial-grade solutions, after years of planning and careful consideration," the open source edition is for the chop.

Customers using it (or who were planning to) have been directed to the company's customer service team, who will "tailor a commercial version solution for you, including dedicated technical support, vulnerability fixes, version upgrades, and other value-added services, to ensure your business systems run stably in an efficient and secure environment."

Users are not impressed. One said [github.com]: "This is without a doubt one of the most shortsighted and damaging business decisions I have seen a company make," declaring the decision a "massive red flag" for any customer using it or considering it for future use.

Another said [reddit.com]: "Maybe I'm just a pessimist, but it feels like in the last few years the greed keeps on accelerating, and open source projects keep dying."

"Dying" might be a bit strong. But the business model on which some projects have been based hasn't been looking too well lately.®

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