Buoyant, the primary developer of Linkerd, a widely used service mesh software in the Kubernetes industry, has announced a new business model. Starting from Linkerd 2.15, only stable versions will require payment.
The open-source versions of Linkerd will remain as is, but there will be weekly edge releases. For a guaranteed stable release for production workloads without breaking changes, Buoyant Enterprise for Linkerd (BEL) commercial version must be used, priced at $2,000 per cluster (with exceptions for organizations with less than 50 people, who can use it for free).
William Morgan, CEO of Buoyant and creator of Linkerd, acknowledges the need to shift to a revenue-based business model. The company needs income to sustain the development team and keep improving Linkerd in a sustainable manner.
Service mesh software is an internal network within Kubernetes clusters that manages traffic within the cluster. It addresses issues of stability, security, and observability within the cluster. While there are several software offerings in this category, the most popular ones are Linkerd and Google’s Istio, along with HashiCorp Consul.
The conflict between open-source projects and revenue generation methods of parent companies is becoming increasingly visible. Previous cases include HashiCorp altering their software licenses, leading developer communities to fork projects under names like OpenTofu and OpenBao. Another notable case is Amazon separating OpenSearch from Elasticsearch.
TLDR: Buoyant introduces a new business model for Linkerd, where only stable versions will require payment, while open-source versions will continue with weekly edge releases. The shift is necessary for revenue generation to support ongoing development efforts.
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