GitLab Looked at the Fair Source License

Funding and maintaining an open-source project like GitLab presents challenges, particularly when it comes to choosing the right licensing model. GitLab has adopted an open-core model with an MIT-licensed Community Edition and a paid Enterprise Edition. The Fair Source license, pioneered by Sourcegraph's Quinn Slack, offers a potential solution by allowing everyone to view the source code and providing free use for a limited number of users, thus combining open-source benefits with commercial viability. GitLab evaluated this model for their Enterprise offering, considering its potential to allow free use up to a certain user threshold before charging. Despite their support for the Fair Source license's principles, GitLab decided against adopting it to avoid market confusion, given their existing free Community Edition and other offerings. Nonetheless, GitLab has incorporated aspects of the Fair Source model by allowing users to modify and publish patch releases under certain licensing conditions.

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