Redis is no longer free software

Posted Mar 21, 2024 10:11 UTC (Thu) by epa (subscriber, #39769)
Parent article: Redis is no longer free software

Isn't this overstating things a bit? If you are running Redis today it's still free software for you, surely. You can still run it, modify it, and redistribute it under the existing licence. Only new versions (or, if you want to get paranoid, newly downloaded copies of the current version from the vendor's website) are not available under a free licence.

Redis is no longer free software

Posted Mar 21, 2024 12:10 UTC (Thu) by cloehle (subscriber, #128160) [Link] (7 responses)

It's not overstating anything.
The "free software" Redis is effectively EOL and no longer maintained (soon). It's not like you can actually still use it for anything serious.

You might be able to use a fork, but I assume that cannot be named as a Redis project as they own the copyright.

Redis is no longer free software

Posted Mar 21, 2024 13:10 UTC (Thu) by epa (subscriber, #39769) [Link] (4 responses)

I always thought that one of the distinguishing features of free software against proprietary is that it doesn't have a fixed "end of life". If you're using it you can continue to use it, and if it needs changes you can make them yourself.

Of course some applications will be highly security sensitive (or require a high degree of security theatre around CVEs and updates) and so you would not want to keep using it if upstream were no longer keeping on top of vulnerabilities. But that can't be 100% of all deployed Redis instances.

I understand the concern and the wish not to use an abandoned project. But the article and some of the comments are taking it as though Redis and its existing users were entirely under the control of its developer, who has managed to un-open-source it as easily as Apple deleting an app from the App Store, and with equally little the users can do about it. It reminds me of the news articles which told us the MP3 format had become obsolete, uncritically reprinting what the Frauenhofer Institute had announced, when what they really meant was that they prefer you to stop using MP3 because they can no longer squeeze you for patent royalties. Perhaps I am being unfair because the headline of any article can be misleading taken out of context, but "Redis is no longer free software" would have been much better as "The free software version of Redis is no longer being maintained by its original developer". Less eye-catching, I admit.

Redis is no longer free software

Posted Mar 21, 2024 13:49 UTC (Thu) by spacefrogg (subscriber, #119608) [Link] (3 responses)

The phrase "X is no longer open source" has a long-standing meaning, which apparently did not catch on in your case. Everyone around for the last 10 years or longer knows, that it means exactly what you suggested last.

I may be confusing software with service. Nobody can take away software from your personal devices unless both the software and your personal devices are merely services given to you that you do not fully control. So, I maintain, the confusion is on your part, because you somehow assume that "is no longer open source" means "has been made unusable", which it doesn't.

It still is effectively unusable for two reasons: 1) It is, as you say yourself, unmaintained now and cannot be used in serious contexts. 2) It may very well be delisted from well-known Linux distributions making it actually inaccessible to you.

So, on the last point, your ill-deemed meaning might very well still come down to a hard and inconvenient realisation.

Redis is no longer free software

Posted Mar 21, 2024 14:29 UTC (Thu) by epa (subscriber, #39769) [Link] (2 responses)

The headline talks about it no longer being free software. But you still have freedom to use, change, and share it. Another example would be Ghostscript: new releases from Aladdin are non-free, I think, but that doesn’t stop Ghostscript being free software for those people who have it as part of their Linux distribution. For a program to stop being free software you would have to lose the rights you had before — arguably that’s what happened to the old BSD with the lawsuit, but it’s very rare.

Whether a program is free software is a rather different question from whether it’s maintained upstream or has security fixes or is convenient to use. There are plenty of programs which are no longer worked on by their original programmer or anyone else. That does not stop them being free software.

Redis is no longer free software

Posted Mar 21, 2024 15:24 UTC (Thu) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

> Ghostscript: new releases from Aladdin are non-free, I think

AIUI, that's actually ALWAYS been the case. Ghostscript as distributed by Aladdin is open source but not Open Source. A year after release, the GPL kicks in.

Or has that changed recently?

Cheers,
Wol

Redis is no longer free software

Posted Mar 21, 2024 15:27 UTC (Thu) by lanodan (subscriber, #169017) [Link]

I'd say the core distinction is between thinking of redis as a mere program, like the stuff you'd have in a textbook.
And the more "modern" (Loosely starting in Winter '95 with AnonCVS) thing of redis as a project on the internet, most of them collaborative thanks to Free Software licences. Redis the software you have installed is and will remain Free Software after all there can't be DRM in a Free software.
But Redis the project, no longer is Free Software, which also means that the new versions (and patches) will no longer be.

Redis is no longer free software

Posted Mar 21, 2024 20:36 UTC (Thu) by atai (subscriber, #10977) [Link] (1 responses)

> that cannot be named as a Redis project as they own the copyright.

you mean the trademark?

Redis is no longer free software

Posted Mar 22, 2024 11:32 UTC (Fri) by cloehle (subscriber, #128160) [Link]

>you mean the trademark?
Yup, sorry, what an unfortunate mistake :/

Redis is no longer free software

Posted Mar 21, 2024 12:12 UTC (Thu) by danpb (subscriber, #4831) [Link]

Redis is complex software and so will inevitably have security bugs. While you can continue running current releases of Redis for now, sooner or later there would be a need to fix security bugs. Distros are unlikely to want to leave the software with unfixed security bugs indefinitely. So either the distros stop shipping Redis, or some group of interested people collaborates to create a new upstream community fork of the last BSD licensed version and commits to providing fixes to it.