Doubling Down on Open Source: How RonDB Upholds the Principles Redis Left Behind
In the world of databases, the journey of Redis from a successful and dominant open source project to recently adopting a dual source-available licensing has evidently sparked quite the debate within the community. In short; Redis will no longer be open source. This transition touches on a core dilemma in our industry: the balance between open innovation and the need for sustainability. Open source databases, with projects like our own RonDB (open source since MySQL 4.1 released in 2004), have not only revolutionized the way we think about data management but fostered a culture of collaboration and shared growth.
We argue that such a pivot not only alienates the grassroots developers who fueled Redis's rise but also sets yet another (following Hashicorp and Elastic) precedent against open source innovation at large. This highlights an essential truth: open source ecosystems thrive on collaboration and mutual respect between creators and corporate entities. This shift by Redis, seen as a compromise, underscores the need for other actors to keep a strong commitment to open source —principles that RonDB embodies with conviction.
We believe that RonDB, rooted in the MySQL Cluster technology developed by Oracle, stands as witness to the enduring power and potential of open source in advancing database technology; used in thousands of projects and systems across the world, it is now paving the way as the most resilient and efficient database for machine learning.
