Lightbend is Changing the License for Akka¶

| scala | akka |

References¶

Original Lightbend blog post Why We Are Changing the License for Akka
PR Change license #31561
Discuss 2.6.x maintenance proposal - Lightbend will be addressing critical security updates and critical bugs in Akka v2.6.x under the current Apache 2 license until September 2023
Community reaction:
- Hacker News
- Reddit 1 and 2

My thoughts¶

TL;DR Lightbend decided to change Akka license from Apache 2.0 to Business Source License (BSL) v1.1.

The BSL is a “Source Available” license that freely allows using the code for development and other non-production work such as testing. Production use of the software requires a commercial license from Lightbend. The commercial license will be available at no charge for early-stage companies (less than US $25 million in annual revenue). By enabling early-stage companies to use Akka in production for free, we hope to continue to foster the innovation synonymous with the startup adoption of Akka.

It was announced 2 days ago (September 7, 2022), I expected a shit-storm and decided to wait and read comments (see links above).

I have nothing against Lightbend’s decision.

I used Akka-http, Akka-Streams and Play Framework. I like Akka-http for it’s simplicity. Life is unpredictable and we all must adjust our plans.

I will not recommend my team or my current and future employer to use Akka. There are several other libraries and frameworks which can replace Akka.

I see the following alternatives for Scala: Typelevel stack or ZIO. One downside of ZIO it’s his opinionated approach. For now, I have decided to check Typelevel stack.

But, in case of failure on Scala front, I have Java backup - Spring Boot and Co. People are saying that Java 18 is cool.

Historical Notes¶

I forgot to mention that Lightbend has stopped Lagom active development and made Playframework community-led project.