Redis is no longer free software

Posted Mar 21, 2024 13:49 UTC (Thu) by spacefrogg (subscriber, #119608)
In reply to: Redis is no longer free software by epa
Parent article: Redis is no longer free software

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.