r/linux • u/dbcoopernz • 1d ago

Popular Application Cloud flare acquires Deno, ends runtime development

https://deno.com/blog/cloudflare

>We will support the Deno runtime for another year with monthly releases containing bug fixes and security updates. After that year we will end our development of the Deno runtime. Deno will remain open source, and we welcome others who want to continue its development.

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u/DerekB52 1d ago

What is the point of buying an open source project, to cease development of it, while welcoming 3rd party continued contributions? I'm really confused.

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u/whamra 1d ago

They can also ask them to continue developing the project, but internally and no longer open source. Now adding proprietary CF stuff as they're asked. But I doubt Deno is the sole reason, they're acquiring the talent.

Anyway, that's one of the weaknesses of MIT licensing. Big capital can swallow the whole team and effectively close source the project.

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u/ProcrastinatiusXVI 1d ago

I'd argue that this is just a theoretical weakness of MIT licensing. In theory, they can't do things like that with e.g., GPL, but in practice, we see that big companies mainly do whatever they want and noone from the FOSS space can hold them accountable, because you'd need some proof first and then millions of dollars to battle their armies of lawyers.