Apache License Without The Apache Consensus
CouchBase has been, is and will be open source
By Alan Shimel on Wed, 01/11/12 - 11:50am.Last week I wrote about CouchDB founder and Couchbase developer Damien Katz announcing that he and his team would be concentrating on CouchBase Server and not CouchDB going forward. In his blog post explaining why Katz mentioned that while the Apache Foundation was a great place to start CouchDB, he found that consensus based, community approach did not fit his and his companies needs now.
Many in the industry and the CouchDB community did not take this news well. It felt a little like a rug being pulled out from under them, especially as there was not an easy and clear migration path from CouchDB to CouchBase. Others felt it was abandoning an open source project. In my article I inadvertently game the impression that CouchBase was moving away from open source all together. That is not fact.
I had a chance to speak this week with James Phillips and Bob Wiederhold of Couchbase. They both emphasized that Couchbase and Membase before that have been, still are and will always be open sourced. In fact they are licensed under an Apache 2.0 license. Kind of ironic don't you think that while Katz wanted to move away from Apache, the Couchbase software is still and will be licensed under the Apache license?
Really though, one thing has nothing to do with the other. The Apache license is a widely respected OSI license. But putting your project under the Apache.org umbrella is a "feather of a different color". I think that was what Katz was getting at.
In any event while Couchbase is open source and licensed under Apache, the company is of course offering a commercial version of the server that comes with all of the bells and whistles, support and service. Both Phillips and Wiederhold are very bullish (you wouldn't expect them not to be) on CouchBases's prospects for the coming year. They say the NoSQL space is poised to continue its explosive growth despite some folks who think the whole NoSQL thing doesn't work and will fizzle out.
It will be interesting to see how it develops as there is certainly no shortage of competition in the space now. They will all be vying for leadership and being open source may or may not be a huge advantage. What do you think?
- About Open Source Fact and Fiction
As co-founder and Managing Partner at The CISO Group, Alan Shimel is responsible for driving the vision and mission of the company. The CISO Group offers security consulting and PCI compliance management for the payment card industry. Prior to The CISO Group, Alan was the Chief Strategy Officer at StillSecure. Shimel was the public persona of StillSecure as it grew from start up to helping defend some of the largest and most sensitive networks in the world.
Shimel is an often-cited personality in the technology community and is a sought-after speaker at industry and government conferences and events. His commentary about the state of security, open source and life is followed closely by many industry insiders via his blog and podcast, "Ashimmy, After All These Years" (www.ashimmy.com). Alan is now also a regular contributor to The CISO Group’s security.exe blog and podcast.
Alan has helped build several successful technology companies by combining a strong business background with a deep knowledge of technology. His legal background, long experience in the field, and New York street smarts combine to form a unique personality.
Disclosure: The CISO Group sells a software-as-a-service PCI compliance application called SAQPro. The company is independent and does not represent any other vendor's products as a reseller.
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