Multi-node TimescaleDB is now free • Hacker News Board

Re: Multi-node TimescaleDB is now free

#21

Post by mfreed » Fri, May 22, 2020, 3:55 PM UTC

tornato7 wrote: post #17

Awesome. I just hope that one day Amazon supports it on RDS. I do know that Digital Ocean does!

An important clarification is that Azure, Digital Ocean, Rackspace (Object Rocket), Alibaba Cloud -- which all support managed TimescaleDB today -- only offer the Apache-2 version of TimescaleDB.

Many of the more advanced features of TimescaleDB, including this distributed options, is released under the Timescale License.

All code under the Timescale License is also source available and people are free to use, incorporate into their commercial SaaS services, distribute, etc. with the primary limitation being if you are offering TimescaleDB as a hosted DBaaS (like RDS, Azure Postgres, etc.)

Instead, Timescale Cloud is the place to get TimescaleDB advanced features as a fully managed DBaaS.

https://www.timescale.com/products/features

Re: Multi-node TimescaleDB is now free

#22

Post by rb808 » Fri, May 22, 2020, 3:55 PM UTC

Can someone please summarize what it does because I couldn't figure out from website? It says its "on Postgres", is it a flavor of PG? or it sits on top of multiple PG instances.

Re: Multi-node TimescaleDB is now free

#23

Post by eloff » Fri, May 22, 2020, 3:56 PM UTC

zrail wrote: post #11

eloff wrote: post #4

This is an interesting window into their business model. This could be a purely an altruistic decision, which businesses sometimes do, contrary to popular belief. More likely it's a bet that wider adoption from making the clustered version free will drive more revenue through their managed database as a service offering. Which shows that their non-OSI open-source license is actually leading to more code and features…

> I think we're too hung up on OSI open source licenses. Where "we" is defined as an extremely vocal minority on HN. I don't think most people take issue with licenses like this Timescale license or the BSL.

Yes, that's probably true. Still vocal minorities tends to wield outsized power by virtue of being vocal.

Re: Multi-node TimescaleDB is now free

#24

Post by waynesonfire » Fri, May 22, 2020, 3:58 PM UTC

akulkarni wrote: post #3

Hi, I authored this post, but the credit really goes to the Timescale database team. Multi-node TimescaleDB is the result of a massive amount of engineering effort over two years, as can be seen in this +67,000 line PR: https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/pull/1923 We're thrilled to make this free so that more developers can use it.

that's a strange KPI to tout.

Re: Multi-node TimescaleDB is now free

#25

Post by edoceo » Fri, May 22, 2020, 3:59 PM UTC

xyst wrote: post #13

If this is just postgresql, why would I use this implementation over postgresql? It also seems like it scales linearly with some decrease in ROI after 12 nodes.

It's not "just" PG, it's like a mega-extension with data-types and tuple-layout and a tonne of magic for the data-domain.

You can, of course, make similar models with plain PG - in the same way one does GIS without PostGIS.

Re: Multi-node TimescaleDB is now free

#26

Post by eloff » Fri, May 22, 2020, 4:01 PM UTC

CameronNemo wrote: post #15

eloff wrote: post #4

This is an interesting window into their business model. This could be a purely an altruistic decision, which businesses sometimes do, contrary to popular belief. More likely it's a bet that wider adoption from making the clustered version free will drive more revenue through their managed database as a service offering. Which shows that their non-OSI open-source license is actually leading to more code and features…

> I think we're too hung up on OSI open source licenses. I disagree. The free software criteria were defined as they are for a reason. AWS and other cloud vendors are taking advantage, but that is not a good reason to give up on the ideals of the movement. I would be much more comfortable contributing to timescaledb if the license had a date at which it expired to AGPL or some other OSI/DFSG/fourfreedoms license.

Ideals for the sake of ideals doesn't resonate with me, in software or outside of it. Give me a practical reason.

The expiry clause is interesting, but I'm not sure it matters in practice. Not many people want to use code several years out of date instead of the current version just because of practically no additional freedoms. Except maybe a potential competitor. I'd be happier to have a reversion to an OSI license if the product stops being maintained or gets acquired and shutdown. That's always a risk with young companies.

Re: Multi-node TimescaleDB is now free

#27

Post by akulkarni » Fri, May 22, 2020, 4:03 PM UTC

gautamdivgi wrote: post #19

akulkarni wrote: post #3

Hi, I authored this post, but the credit really goes to the Timescale database team. Multi-node TimescaleDB is the result of a massive amount of engineering effort over two years, as can be seen in this +67,000 line PR: https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/pull/1923 We're thrilled to make this free so that more developers can use it.

I would add your GitHub org in the "community" link of your site/blog. I was trying to get to the code from there and couldn't find a link. I'll be looking forward to playing around with this. thanks...

Thanks for the feedback!

Re: Multi-node TimescaleDB is now free

#28

Post by akulkarni » Fri, May 22, 2020, 4:04 PM UTC

waynesonfire wrote: post #24

akulkarni wrote: post #3

Hi, I authored this post, but the credit really goes to the Timescale database team. Multi-node TimescaleDB is the result of a massive amount of engineering effort over two years, as can be seen in this +67,000 line PR: https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb/pull/1923 We're thrilled to make this free so that more developers can use it.

that's a strange KPI to tout.

It's definitely not a KPI. But still representative of the amount of work that has gone into this!

Re: Multi-node TimescaleDB is now free

#29

Post by xyzzy_plugh » Fri, May 22, 2020, 4:05 PM UTC

CameronNemo wrote: post #15

eloff wrote: post #4

This is an interesting window into their business model. This could be a purely an altruistic decision, which businesses sometimes do, contrary to popular belief. More likely it's a bet that wider adoption from making the clustered version free will drive more revenue through their managed database as a service offering. Which shows that their non-OSI open-source license is actually leading to more code and features…

> I think we're too hung up on OSI open source licenses. I disagree. The free software criteria were defined as they are for a reason. AWS and other cloud vendors are taking advantage, but that is not a good reason to give up on the ideals of the movement. I would be much more comfortable contributing to timescaledb if the license had a date at which it expired to AGPL or some other OSI/DFSG/fourfreedoms license.

In principle, yes I agree, but in practice: no! AGPL is a minefield, it's a shame it is, but it is. The spirit of GPL (and AGPL) was that you could do whatever you want but you have to release the source, but they have continually been handicapped by the evolution of software. Existing licenses are not appropriate for SaaS businesses, they are either too liberal or too restrictive. What you're seeing here is the right move: I can use this for free, for personal use or business. I can't sell it directly -- why should I be able to? It's sleazy and encourages closed ecosystems (AWS, GCP, etc.).

The spirit of free software is very much alive in this decision, methinks.

Re: Multi-node TimescaleDB is now free

#30

Post by wenc » Fri, May 22, 2020, 4:06 PM UTC

rb808 wrote: post #22

Can someone please summarize what it does because I couldn't figure out from website? It says its "on Postgres", is it a flavor of PG? or it sits on top of multiple PG instances.

It's a PG extension.