Spirit of opensource
I have very little experience with opensource Elasticsearch the one I have had most with. The products I work on only use two pieces of opensource one is used as a library, we compile the source into our codebase. The second is Elasticsearch, we make API calls through .Net to the customer’s installation of Elasticsearch.
Therefore, I would consider myself and outsider to opensource and the community. But to these outsider’s eyes the actions of both AWS and Elastic though within the rules go against the spirit of opensource. To me they run contrary to the founding ideals of open source.
I did the PoC and prototype for our implementation of Elasticsearch, that’s where my experience ends another team implemented the feature. But before I did the PoC I went on a course run by Elastic. In one lunch time break I got talking to the presenters one a feature writer the other a VP of something or other.
I asked them how Elastic can make money when they have open sourced it? They said it was through licensed support, training courses and the tools and extra features they sell to go with it.
AWS’s cloudy implementation of Elasticsearch does not licence Elastic’s tools, AWS created their own. So even though the license allows AWS to do this, to Elastic AWS depriving Elastic of their revenue stream.
That said Elastics actions in changing the licence on the opensource parts goes against the spirit of opensource, Elastic though the main contributors are not the only contributors. Contributors who submitted under one licence have had their contributions re-licensed.
Both AWS’s and Elastic’s actions to me go against the spirit of opensource.
PS Yes, I know I have written so much to say so little. :)