Just yesterday, Chef, the Continuous Automation software provider announced that the company will be moving to a 100% open source plan.
According to the official announcement, Chef will expand the scope of its open source licensing to include 100% of their software under the Apache 2.0 license “without any restrictions on the use, distribution or monetization of our source code as long as our trademark policy is respected.”
So happy that @chef is now a 100% open source company. They are done being open core, and I have to say, I’m stoked about it. It aligns the company with its core values in a way that is so much more elegant and understandable. https://t.co/yNd7WiygSG
— Adam Jacob (@adamhjk) April 2, 2019
What are the actual changes taking place and what are the potential implications for the developer community?
Let’s have a quick discussion.
The facts
By open sourcing its entire portfolio of automation software, Chef undeniably makes a significant shift in its business model.
Here are some facts about Chef’s refinement:
- From now on, all Chef software is to be developed as open source and under the Apache 2.0 license.
- There will be no use restriction, as long as it adheres to the trademark guidelines, including monetization by third parties.
- The Chef branded binaries will be developed, distributed, licensed and supported from the same open source code that is available to the community.
In addition to the above-mentioned announcement, Chef also introduced a new Chef Enterprise Automation Stack in order to attend to the Enterprises’ needs for a more curated and streamlined way to deploy and update their software and content.
Here is what this new offering is all about:
- A full stack of automation features across infrastructure, security and numerous applications.
- Streamlining procurement, deployment, use, and support for the Chef platform among the Coded Enterprise.
SEE ALSO: Turn DevOps into DevSecOps without sacrificing automation
The community
In a video interview with Alan Shimel, Corey Scobie, senior vice president of product and engineering for Chef, mentioned that up to this point, the company has been offering a mix of open source and proprietary software that made engaging with some customers overly complex from a licensing perspective. That could be labeled as one of the key deciding factors behind Chef’s shift in business model.
In the same interview, however, interviewer Alan Shimel noted that:
To me, Chef was always an open source company.
Alan Shimel Editor-in-chief of DevOps.com
What is your take on this announcement? Did you think of Chef as a mostly proprietary software provider and consider this change as a pivot?
Let us know what you think in the poll below.
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The post Chef announced its full commitment to open source appeared first on JAXenter.
Source : JAXenter
