* Package name : freenginx Version : 1.24.0 Upstream Author : Maxim Dounin and the development community Section: web * URL : http://freenginx.org/ * License : GPL Programming Lang: C Description : a fork of nginx maintained by Maxim Dounin and the development community ----- In February 2024, Maxim Dounin forked Nginx and created the freenginx project. According to Maxim's announcement on the nginx-users mailing list (<https://mailman.nginx.org/pipermail/nginx/2024-February/GPXQY27UA5SJJZ2Y6JWTRWJB2TKPTJR7.html>): <QUOTE> Hello! As you probably know, F5 closed Moscow office in 2022, and I no longer work for F5 since then. Still, we’ve reached an agreement that I will maintain my role in nginx development as a volunteer. And for almost two years I was working on improving nginx and making it better for everyone, for free. Unfortunately, some new non-technical management at F5 recently decided that they know better how to run open source projects. In particular, they decided to interfere with security policy nginx uses for years, ignoring both the policy and developers’ position. That’s quite understandable: they own the project, and can do anything with it, including doing marketing-motivated actions, ignoring developers position and community. Still, this contradicts our agreement. And, more importantly, I no longer able to control which changes are made in nginx within F5, and no longer see nginx as a free and open source project developed and maintained for the public good. As such, starting from today, I will no longer participate in nginx development as run by F5. Instead, I’m starting an alternative project, which is going to be run by developers, and not corporate entities: http://freenginx.org/ The goal is to keep nginx development free from arbitrary corporate actions. Help and contributions are welcome. Hope it will be beneficial for everyone.
+1
Le 14/02/2024 à 21:46, Jeffrey Walton a écrit : There's also https://github.com/webserver-llc/angie Last commit is from end of December, but it should be wise to wait and see how it settles I guess. Adrien
[CC += Maxim] <https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1063916> Is it really GPL (and if so, which version)? I don't see any mentions by Maxim that he would relicense it as GPL (but I would love it). Have a lovely day! Alex
Hello! No, the license is BSD. No license changes are expected.
Is there *any* point on packaging this nginx fork this early? We don't yet know the bus factor (i.e. uptake of the fork, size of core team, etc) of this fork yet. We don't know how the dynamics with the F5-controlled ngnix project will play out re. cross-merges, security issues (which are very likely to be the same for both projects for quite a while given the shared code), etc. If nginx and freenginx diverge too much on functionality, it might make sense to have both in Debian. If they do not, we more likely should stick with either one, but not both (and it is way too early to even guess which one would make sense to stick to)... There are other potential issues as well, it is best to wait a couple months at the very least.
Thank you sir! And my apologies for selecting the wrong license. That was a copy/paste error from the sample wnpp request. Jeff
What about changing upstream of existing nginx* packages to follow the developer community? As a heavy NginX user, I would rather do this than keep with a company with questionable practices. Stick to the developers, not the company. Any other option (new packaging, etc.) would simply require changes on all servers. So, there must be some policy in Debian that protects the developer community and helps follow its decision. If not, that's probably a good discussion to have.
Also see <https://freenginx.org/pipermail/nginx/2024-March/000057.html>: <QUOTE> Debian-legal has already taken an interest in this, and consensus is to steer clear of your freenginx fork due to copyright and trademark infringement risks. Because of that edict, I am unable to get this into Debian. I have already reached out to Canonical Legal for assessment on the concerns with regards to Ubuntu. If they rule similarly, then we face a similar hurdle, which will prohibit us from using the Debian or Ubuntu repositories to distribute freenginx. </QUOTE>