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We believe in community-driven open source

  • Status: accepted
  • Deciders: Rob, Johan, Cristian (a.k.a., Product Management working group)
  • Date: 2021-08-17

Context and Problem Statement

We often get bombarded with questions like "Why don't you use X?" or "Why don't you build on top of Y?", sometimes preceded by "product/project X already has feature Y". Needless to say, this can cause a "Simpsons Already Did It" feeling.

This ADR clarifies one of the core values of the Welkin project, namely our belief in community-driven open source. The ADR is useful to clarify both to internal and external stakeholders the choices we make.

Decision Drivers

  • We do not want to depend on the interests of any single company, be it small or large.
  • The Application Developers need to have a business continuity plan, see ISO 27001, Annex A.17. Therefore, we want to make it easy to "exit" Welkin and take over platform management.
  • We want to use the best tools out there.

Considered Options

  • Prefer closed source solutions.
  • Prefer single-company open source solutions.
  • Prefer community-drive open source solutions.

Decision Outcome

Chosen option: "prefer community-driven open source solutions".

Positive Consequences

  • We do not depend on the interests of any single company.
  • The Application Developers do not depend on the interests of any single company.
  • Business continuity is significantly simplified for the Application Developers.
  • We have better chances at influencing projects in a direction that is useful to us and the Application Developers. The smaller the project, the easier to influence.

Negative Consequences

  • Sometimes we might need to give up "that cool new feature" until the community-driven open source solution catches up with their closed source or single-company open source alternative. Alternatively, we might need to put extra time and effort to develop "that cool new feature" ourselves.
  • As they are not bound by vendor liability -- e.g., end-of-life promises -- community-driven projects present a greater risk of being abandoned. The smaller the project, the higher the risk.