Nginx to Be Acquired by F5 Networks • Hacker News Board

Re: Nginx to Be Acquired by F5 Networks

#191

Post by ummonk » Mon, Mar 11, 2019, 11:49 PM UTC

yingw787 wrote: post #50

So...what is the future of enterprise open source? Is there a future for enterprise open source? If you start a company and open source your core/clients, your product becomes part of AWS, and AWS runs you into the ground. If you mix in proprietary licenses to protect yourself, AWS forks your core, adds in open-source licensed clients, then runs you into the ground (and you lose open-source contributors/supporters as…

Source-available commercial software might be a more viable route to go.

Re: Nginx to Be Acquired by F5 Networks

#192

Post by xorcist » Mon, Mar 11, 2019, 11:50 PM UTC

yingw787 wrote: post #50

So...what is the future of enterprise open source? Is there a future for enterprise open source? If you start a company and open source your core/clients, your product becomes part of AWS, and AWS runs you into the ground. If you mix in proprietary licenses to protect yourself, AWS forks your core, adds in open-source licensed clients, then runs you into the ground (and you lose open-source contributors/supporters as…

Obviously open source isn't going away. It's just that VC struggles to understand the implications, still, and the past half a decade has been imprinted deeply by all the cheap money.

If your worst nightmare is that a big company like Amazon uses your software then perhaps your business model wasn't really for the cloud era. Selling licenses is to the VC crowd what sequels are to Hollywood, comfort food that everyone knows how to handle but simultaneously knows isn't going to be the future.

Linux isn't worse off because it is used by AWS and Google. Quite the contrary.

Re: Nginx to Be Acquired by F5 Networks

#193

Post by mitchellh » Mon, Mar 11, 2019, 11:55 PM UTC

user5994461 wrote: post #99

westoque wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Hashicorp[0] has nailed down the open source enterprise model perfectly. Where they make open source software for enterprise and provide services to support. [0]: https://www.hashicorp.com

They barely have any revenue and they're struggling. It's probably one of the next companies to be acquired in the coming years.

I'm one of the founders of HashiCorp. We don't publicly talk about exact numbers, but we broke through 9-figures last year, and a very low % of that is support (its mostly enterprise software). That also isn't using any accounting tricks (such as a ton of multi-year deals). We're doing very well. We're in no talks to be acquired, either.

I can't prove any of this, you'd have to take my word for it! I guess if we ever go public in N years (not saying we are, but _if_), you'll see for yourself on historical results. :)

Re: Nginx to Be Acquired by F5 Networks

#194

Post by MichaelMoser123 » Mon, Mar 11, 2019, 11:57 PM UTC

yingw787 wrote: post #50

So...what is the future of enterprise open source? Is there a future for enterprise open source? If you start a company and open source your core/clients, your product becomes part of AWS, and AWS runs you into the ground. If you mix in proprietary licenses to protect yourself, AWS forks your core, adds in open-source licensed clients, then runs you into the ground (and you lose open-source contributors/supporters as…

can be, I am interviewing quite a bit lately, among start ups there seems to be a renewed interest in doing devices. Probably because it is harder to do the commoditization trick or to re-implement the solution when hardware is involved.

Re: Nginx to Be Acquired by F5 Networks

#195

Post by buryat » Mon, Mar 11, 2019, 11:59 PM UTC

ddragosd wrote: post #185

buryat wrote: post #27

what are some good alternatives to nginx?

I'd rather narrow the problem to "what you really need to achieve". See this benchmark for some inspiration: https://www.techempower.com/benchmarks/#section=data-r17&hw=...

thanks, for a personal static blog

Re: Nginx to Be Acquired by F5 Networks

#196

Post by munificent » Mon, Mar 11, 2019, 11:59 PM UTC

darksoul wrote: post #73

c0l0 wrote: post #49

I guess that signals it's time for nginx users to check out possible alternatives - just in case, if things turn out for the worse. I can recommend having a look at https://varnish-cache.org/ - while its performance might not be 100% up to par with nginx in some (very, very high-end) scenarios, it has many other fortes that nginx (at least in its FOSS release version; I've never used nginx plus) just cannot match in…

According to the public statements, F5 is committing to maintain the current level of resources NGINX has allocated to their open source programs, to keep the same dev team involved, to keep licensing as it currently is, not change any of the repositories on Mercurial and GitHub and to keep the NGINX brand. Which only means that NGINX will get even better over time.

> committing to maintain the current level of resources NGINX has allocated to their open source programs

What are the contractual consequences if they don't keep that commitment? If the answer is "none", then it's not a commitment.

Re: Nginx to Be Acquired by F5 Networks

#197

Post by james_s_tayler » Tue, Mar 12, 2019, 12:01 AM UTC

geofft wrote: post #176

yingw787 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe. At least our company won't touch GPL code; as one colleague described to me, if you violate a proprietary license, a company will come after you for money, while violating a GPL license gets the EFF involved who will come after you for your source code. I'm still wary, though. I could imagine if the resultant fines or source code releases from violating a GPL license weren't a strong enough deterrent, you coul…

(Usually not the EFF; more likely Software Freedom Conservancy or someone. EFF is more digital rights and privacy stuff, not copyright.) A copyright holder can't get anything more from you by using the GPL. Infringement is infringement. The difference is that a company is usually happy to settle in exchange for a properly paid license, and an open source hacker instead is happy to settle in exchange for complying wit…

You can't actually be guaranteed to win by being in the right. You can be in the right and lose.

Re: Nginx to Be Acquired by F5 Networks

#198

Post by sjwright » Tue, Mar 12, 2019, 12:01 AM UTC

sneak wrote: post #70

admax88q wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could AGPL and sell proprietary exceptions. Amazon won't touch AGPL code.

Has the AGPL ever successfully held up in court?

Surely it doesn't need to—either you accept the license or you don't accept the license. If you don't accept the license, you can't use the software.

I'd imagine that the challenge with the AGPL is catching and suing the non-compliant services.

Re: Nginx to Be Acquired by F5 Networks

#199

Post by MichaelMoser123 » Tue, Mar 12, 2019, 12:05 AM UTC

admax88q wrote: post #60

yingw787 wrote: post #50

So...what is the future of enterprise open source? Is there a future for enterprise open source? If you start a company and open source your core/clients, your product becomes part of AWS, and AWS runs you into the ground. If you mix in proprietary licenses to protect yourself, AWS forks your core, adds in open-source licensed clients, then runs you into the ground (and you lose open-source contributors/supporters as…

You could AGPL and sell proprietary exceptions. Amazon won't touch AGPL code.

agpl will not save you if they choose to re-implement the solution.

Re: Nginx to Be Acquired by F5 Networks

#200

Post by pretty_titan » Tue, Mar 12, 2019, 12:06 AM UTC

How can some of you do balancing, but have never heard of F5? Heck, I knew if f5 10 plus years ago. F5 can be fully automated now from top down, plus the additional security aspects are a major plus. Most people that use Nginx, and have some knowledge of load balancing products use both. It’s often called the best of bread, which Nginx and f5 are IMO. Now, a few years ago could you have automated everything? Probably not, but just look at their gitrepo. It’s pretty transparent at what their aiming at.