alt Hacker News> too many people globally who use open source without being willing to pay for it.
That's an odd take... open source is a software licensing model, not a business model.
Unless you have some knowledge that I don't, MinIO never asked for nor accepted donations from users of their open source offerings. All of their funding came from sales and support of their enterprise products, not their open source one. They are shutting down their own contributions to the open source code in order to focus on their closed enterprise products, not due to lack of community engagement or (as already mentioned) community funding.
Replies
I respectfully disagree with the notion that open source is strictly a licensing model and not a business model. For an open-source project to achieve long-term reliability and growth, it must be backed by a sustainable commercial engine. History has shown that simply donating a project to a foundation (like Apache or CNCF) isn't a silver bullet; many projects under those umbrellas still struggle to find the resources they need to thrive. The ideal path—and the best outcome for users globally—is a "middle way" where: The software remains open and maintained. The core team has a viable way to survive and fund development. Open code ensures security, transparency, and a trustworthy software supply chain. However, the way MinIO has handled this transition is, in my view, the most disappointing approach possible. It creates a significant trust gap. When a company pivots this way, users are left wondering about the integrity of the code—whether it’s the potential for "backdoors" or undisclosed data transmission. I hope to see other open-source object storage projects mature quickly to provide a truly transparent and reliable alternative.
> That's an odd take... open source is a software licensing model, not a business model.
Yes, open-source is a software license model, not a business model. It is also not a software support model.
This change is them essentially declaring that MinIO is EOL and will not have any further updates.
For comparison, Windows 10 which is a paid software released in the same year as first minio release i.e. 2015 is already EOL.