I hated this post. The cringy Kendrick song references, the self congratulatory back patting for back pedaling years too late on an unpopular license change; it’s just all awful.
Oof, I really feel bad after reading this article. The tone is so euphoric and self congratulatory that I can hardly believe it’s remotely genuine. Maybe it (even partly) is, but I just can’t relate to the author entirely because of the writing and way emotions are overwhelmingly put forward, to a point they seem more important than the actual announcement (which, for a company blog, feels way out of place for me).
I’m having a hard time reading through all of it (despite it being quite short), and I didn’t really followed the context of their license change some years ago. But I feel like if they “never stopped believing in Open Source”, why wasn’t the AGPL an option then, when AWS was doing their thing ? I don’t know if I’m missing something, but that would have been a way better question to answer to instead of waving at “trolls” near the end, I think.
Again, maybe I’m saying a dumb thing, but eluding this points really contributes to distrust, to me, when the article is seemingly supposed to do the opposite.
I can’t make heads or tails of this. The tone and format of the message is certainly a huge part of it, as it is really, really odd. Not only is it really fragmented, also all the yearning about how they actually always loved open source. Then I’m confused about the usage of logos: this is the Elasticsearch and logstash logo that was put out of use when they introduced consistent branding… ages ago? Like, why?
And finally: triple-license? How does that exactly play out? How does it apply to their other products? It’s definitely not simple and straight-forward.
tonedeaf post, elastic obviously didn’t anticipate Amazon’s fork - this represents the back-peddling of a bad decision. idk why companies can’t just own up to that.
This is not back-peddling, as the original license is Apache 2.0, which OpenSearch still uses.
Back-peddling would be to put it back under Apache 2.0, so that both projects can merge, though I’d understand if they keep some corporate-specific tools around it AGPL (or optionally a proprietary license).
Anyway they will keep a CLA so they can change licenses at any point to the future, so I would never use their software. OpenSearch doesn’t have a CLA, only a DCO.
I hated this post. The cringy Kendrick song references, the self congratulatory back patting for back pedaling years too late on an unpopular license change; it’s just all awful.
I have never heard of Kendrick, I was so confused by the beginnings of the paragraphs. Thanks for clarifying that for me :P .
Oof, I really feel bad after reading this article. The tone is so euphoric and self congratulatory that I can hardly believe it’s remotely genuine. Maybe it (even partly) is, but I just can’t relate to the author entirely because of the writing and way emotions are overwhelmingly put forward, to a point they seem more important than the actual announcement (which, for a company blog, feels way out of place for me).
I’m having a hard time reading through all of it (despite it being quite short), and I didn’t really followed the context of their license change some years ago. But I feel like if they “never stopped believing in Open Source”, why wasn’t the AGPL an option then, when AWS was doing their thing ? I don’t know if I’m missing something, but that would have been a way better question to answer to instead of waving at “trolls” near the end, I think.
Again, maybe I’m saying a dumb thing, but eluding this points really contributes to distrust, to me, when the article is seemingly supposed to do the opposite.
“Please take me back, I love you, I can change, I swear.”
I can’t make heads or tails of this. The tone and format of the message is certainly a huge part of it, as it is really, really odd. Not only is it really fragmented, also all the yearning about how they actually always loved open source. Then I’m confused about the usage of logos: this is the Elasticsearch and logstash logo that was put out of use when they introduced consistent branding… ages ago? Like, why?
And finally: triple-license? How does that exactly play out? How does it apply to their other products? It’s definitely not simple and straight-forward.
Agreed! I’m pleased Elastic are looking to go back to open source. I have questions around how triple-licensing would work in practice.
Fairly or unfairly, the tone and content of this article don’t leave me convinced that the author would be able to answer those questions.
FWIW, “the author” in this case is Shay Bannon, the founder of the company.
Even named
original-elastic-logos.png.Yeah, is this trying to evoke nostalgia?
I think so, but it really only adds to the “unhinged” vibe of the whole announcement.
AGPL is fine. But please, get rid of the CLA. Nothing is prevent you from closing the source again next time you have a mood change.
I find something fascinating.
In the “Elastic is doing this because they are not doing well” he said a lot of things but none of them answers the point he said he would answer :D
Heh, I noticed that too. I guess we’re trolls, then?
tonedeaf post, elastic obviously didn’t anticipate Amazon’s fork - this represents the back-peddling of a bad decision. idk why companies can’t just own up to that.
This is not back-peddling, as the original license is Apache 2.0, which OpenSearch still uses.
Back-peddling would be to put it back under Apache 2.0, so that both projects can merge, though I’d understand if they keep some corporate-specific tools around it AGPL (or optionally a proprietary license).
Anyway they will keep a CLA so they can change licenses at any point to the future, so I would never use their software. OpenSearch doesn’t have a CLA, only a DCO.
The Kendrick song titles at the start of every paragraph is a weird touch. Possibly good weird, I’m not sure.
To someone wholly unfamiliar with Kendrick and his music, it really just conveys an extremely confused vibe.
Nothing says “professional” like starting a paragraph with “[All The Stars]”……
Fool me once shame on me…
Never again Elastic. You burned that bridge.
This is… a really awful post.
And the stock market didn’t take it too well: -25% on the day they announced it, so I bought stock. Will see how that goes :D
That’s likely more related to the earnings call yesterday. Numbers aren’t too terrible, but also not rocket growth. https://ir.elastic.co/news/news-details/2024/Elastic-Reports-First-Quarter-Fiscal-2025-Financial-Results/default.aspx
Wow, wall-street really liked that message. 25% drop of share price yesterday. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ESTC/
Someone else pointed out that the down earnings is probably the cause there.