Making heads or tails of open source

Tailscale, a company built on open source principles, heavily relies on and contributes to open source development, including the core use of the WireGuard protocol. Initially developing their project in a closed repository, Tailscale eventually open-sourced their client software to enhance transparency and trust, especially for Linux and Android, while keeping GUIs for proprietary systems closed due to the complexity involved. Although their coordination server remains closed source due to maintenance challenges, an independent open-source alternative called Headscale has emerged, which Tailscale supports as a complementary project. Tailscale actively engages with and contributes to the open source community through various initiatives, such as maintaining compatibility with Headscale, upstreaming changes, adopting community projects, and offering their service for free to open source projects. They emphasize transparency and community involvement, encouraging contributions and collaboration to enhance their products and the broader open source ecosystem.