This looks like an open source Zerotier, my dream has come true.
Zerotier is open source?
It is, but under a noncommercial license.
Nebula, Slack's Open Source Global Overlay Network
31–40 of 71 posts
Re: Nebula, Slack's Open Source Global Overlay Network
#32How does this differ from WireGuard?
WireGuard is a VPN, and Nebula is an overlay network (also known as a service mesh). They are closely related concepts.
VPNs are primarily used for remote access, to get random machines access to closed IP networks. Service meshes synthesize a new network (sometimes IP, sometimes something else) to connect a bunch of related machines, almost always with policy controls for who can talk to what, usually cryptographic.
It would be weird (but not "wrong") to use a service mesh to get developer laptops access to staging Postgres.
It would be weird (but not "wrong") to use WireGuard to connect an application server to its Postgres instance.
WireGuard is a much tighter and more limited design, intended for integration directly into operating system kernels, with a strong emphasis on performance. Nebula is a much more ambitious design; it includes direct DNS support, certificates, and server infrastructure. WireGuard is a few thousand lines of very carefully written C code; Nebula is a typical Go project.
They're both very cool.
Re: Nebula, Slack's Open Source Global Overlay Network
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Zerotier is open source?
It is, but under a noncommercial license.
Oh, indeed. I wasn't aware of that:
https://github.com/zerotier/ZeroTierOne/blob/master/LICENSE....
> Business Source License 1.1
> License text copyright (c) 2017 MariaDB Corporation Ab, All Rights Reserved.
> "Business Source License" is a trademark of MariaDB Corporation Ab.
Which is a bit odd, as MariaDB itself is gpl2 (+commercial)?
Re: Nebula, Slack's Open Source Global Overlay Network
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is, but under a noncommercial license.
Oh, indeed. I wasn't aware of that: https://github.com/zerotier/ZeroTierOne/blob/master/LICENSE.... > Business Source License 1.1 > License text copyright (c) 2017 MariaDB Corporation Ab, All Rights Reserved. > "Business Source License" is a trademark of MariaDB Corporation Ab. Which is a bit odd, as MariaDB itself is gpl2 (+commercial)? https://github.com/MariaDB/server/blob/10.5/COPYING
MariaDB Corporation uses the license for some other products surrounding MariaDB, not for the main database system.
Re: Nebula, Slack's Open Source Global Overlay Network
#35This does look really great! Is there ipv6 support?
Both for overlay network[1], and/or for nodes?
Re: Nebula, Slack's Open Source Global Overlay Network
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
The BSD license is a pretty big difference. [EDIT] MIT, that is, of course.
Consul Connect is under MPLv2, which is a perfectly reasonable license unless you want to do shady things. There may be other differentiators, but this is not one.
Is that one Apple App Store (iOS) compatible?
Re: Nebula, Slack's Open Source Global Overlay Network
#37It feels like their issues would have been solved by a service mesh using e.g. consul or istio. If so, I'd wonder writing a tool from scratch was the right use of engineering time. Anyway, as an engineer, I'd certainly have found this a fun project. Kudos to slack for trying something new and open sourcing it.
Not entirely as it only really allows stuff thats running in that service mesh's world to connect to the network. But they want a global VPN for _everything_ including laptops. This means some level of access control. What I like here is the use of lighhouses, to allow external nodes to punch in and discover the rest of the network. Something which is very difficult to do if you are relying on a service mesh in an un…
With Consul intentions and edge gateways you may be able to have the same functionality, but those are quite recent and was not present 2 years ago.
Re: Nebula, Slack's Open Source Global Overlay Network
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Zerotier is open source?
It is, but under a noncommercial license.
We have a blog post about our transition to the BSL from the GPL:
https://www.zerotier.com/on-the-gpl-to-bsl-transition/
I don't think the BSL is perfect. We're thinking and discussing with a number of people about potentially better licenses that would be closer to traditional FOSS while preventing "SaaSification" and similar. I think we're in the early stages of a renegotiation of the open source social contract and I don't think we've figured out the best model yet.
The AGPL is close but suffers from two problems: (1) it isn't perfect either and has numerous loopholes, and (2) there are a ton of companies out there with an irrational but nevertheless very entrenched phobia of anything associated with the GPL (as we have discovered). Maybe something a bit like the AGPL but not GPL branded would work.
Re: Nebula, Slack's Open Source Global Overlay Network
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is, but under a noncommercial license.
We have a blog post about our transition to the BSL from the GPL: https://www.zerotier.com/on-the-gpl-to-bsl-transition/ I don't think the BSL is perfect. We're thinking and discussing with a number of people about potentially better licenses that would be closer to traditional FOSS while preventing "SaaSification" and similar. I think we're in the early stages of a renegotiation of the open source social contract an…
I'm not judging, I'm simply relating a fact: Nebula is MIT licensed, and ZeroTier is BSL'd; a paid license is required to use ZeroTier in a closed-source application.
Re: Nebula, Slack's Open Source Global Overlay Network
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
We have a blog post about our transition to the BSL from the GPL: https://www.zerotier.com/on-the-gpl-to-bsl-transition/ I don't think the BSL is perfect. We're thinking and discussing with a number of people about potentially better licenses that would be closer to traditional FOSS while preventing "SaaSification" and similar. I think we're in the early stages of a renegotiation of the open source social contract an…
I'm not judging, I'm simply relating a fact: Nebula is MIT licensed, and ZeroTier is BSL'd; a paid license is required to use ZeroTier in a closed-source application.
Yes, that's intentional. It used to be GPL which imposed the same requirement, but we shifted to BSL because it's a bit more explicit and because of (again, irrational) GPL-phobia on the part of some non-trivial subset of corporate users.
BTW the closed source restriction in the BSL is effectively the same as the GPL and the only other meaningful restriction is on SaaS direct monetization. Companies can still run ZT for free and run it behind the scenes for free. It's a lot like the AGPL.