Moving Quarkus to a Foundation
tl;dr
We intend to move Quarkus to a foundation to accelerate the adoption rate, enhance transparency, foster collaboration, and encourage multi-vendor participation and execution.
Introduction
The Quarkus project has soared to incredible heights and maturity since its inception. Quarkus was unveiled as a community project in March 2019, followed by the release of Red Hat Build of Quarkus in April 2020. Quarkus has captivated the developer community with over 700 publicly available extensions and close to 1 million downloads of its core artefacts monthly. Quarkus has proven to be a game-changer in the world of Java-based development.
The vibrant and ever-expanding Quarkus community is a testament to the project’s success. With over 900 contributors, the energy and passion are palpable. In the past year alone, Quarkus core had pull requests from 111 non-Red Hat contributors, and Quarkiverse from 394 non-Red Hat contributors. This broad and diverse participation emphasises the immense interest and support for Quarkus, showcasing the power of collaborative innovation.
Vision for Quarkus
As Quarkus adoption increases, we aim to establish Quarkus as the de-facto standard for new Java-based applications. We are excited to welcome more developers and vendors from across the software ecosystem, inviting them to be part of this dynamic journey.
Step 1: More Open Governance
We are committed to improving our governance and execution by enabling more transparency and participation. Over the coming weeks and months, we will roll out initiatives designed to:
- Increase Transparency
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We will provide more visibility into our decision-making processes, development roadmaps, and project status updates to the community.
- Enhance Participation
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We will create more opportunities for community members to get involved in project governance, such as contributing to working efforts, joining meetings/chats, and participating in design discussions.
- Improve Communication
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We will establish better channels for feedback and dialogue, ensuring that community voices are heard and considered in the project’s evolution.
Step 2: Moving to a Foundation
To further this goal, we are proposing an exciting new chapter: moving the Quarkus project to a foundation. This move will bolster our commitment to open-source development and inspire greater community participation.
We believe transitioning Quarkus to a foundation will help:
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Accelerate adoption rate.
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Enhance transparency and foster collaboration.
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Encourage multi-vendor participation and execution.
Support and Alignment with Red Hat Values
Red Hat business leaders are fully behind this move. Red Hat is dedicated to participating in and supporting vendor-neutral collaboration projects, such as the Linux kernel, Kubernetes, and OpenJDK. We seek the same for Quarkus.
Community Feedback
Discussions with Red Hat and non-Red Hat community members indicate strong support for this move. The feedback received so far highlights Quarkus' maturity and the need to improve its development openness.
Criteria for Choosing the Right Foundation
We have identified several key criteria for selecting a foundation:
- Maintain Delivery Pace
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Preserve Quarkus fast pace of delivery, innovation, and experimentation.
- Visibility and Recognition
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Ensure Quarkus remains visible and recognizable within a foundation’s potentially larger portfolio of projects.
- Flexibility Beyond Cloud Native
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Recognize that Quarkus supports a wide variety of use cases, from monoliths to edge deployments.
- Independent Technology Choices
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Ensure Quarkus can make decisions based on technical merits, not foundation-imposed options.
- Licence Flexibility
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Provide flexibility in using Open Source Initiative (OSI)-approved Open Source licences for the Quarkus platform, its extensions and its dependencies.
Conclusion and Call to Action
We invite the wider Quarkus community, both inside and outside Red Hat, to join the discussion in the community by commenting on this blog or in GitHub discussion. Your concerns and constructive feedback are crucial in helping us decide the best home for Quarkus. Together, we can ensure Quarkus continues to thrive and innovate.
On behalf of the Quarkus team.
