Again to Our Open Supply Roots: Winding Down Percona ProBuilds

At Percona, open supply isn’t just one thing we use. It’s who we’re.

From our earliest days, our mission has been easy and constant: make open supply databases higher for everybody. That mission guides our product choices, our enterprise mannequin, and the way we interact with the group.

Immediately, I need to share an essential replace about Percona ProBuilds, why we created them, and why we determined to wind them down.

ProBuilds Have been an Experiment

Percona ProBuilds began as an experiment.

The concept was to discover whether or not we might provide personalized binary packages designed particularly for enterprise environments, particularly for organizations working giant, mission-critical techniques with strict operational or compliance necessities.

These packages have been supplied completely to clients with paid Percona assist subscriptions, as a part of the worth we offer by way of our assist and companies. The aim was to simplify sure enterprise use instances by way of packaging, to not change the character of the software program itself.

What ProBuilds Have been and Have been Not

You will need to clearly clarify what ProBuilds represented.

ProBuilds didn’t introduce proprietary options or closed-source code. Each characteristic included in ProBuilds was all the time obtainable in Percona’s open supply repositories. The supply code remained open, auditable, and accessible to everybody.

What was gated was the personalized packaging, not the software program or its capabilities. The identical options might all the time be constructed from the open supply code. ProBuilds merely delivered these options in a pre-packaged kind tailor-made for sure enterprise situations.

Why We Determined to Finish the Experiment

Because the experiment matured, we took a step again and requested ourselves a basic query.

Even when the code was open, did limiting personalized packages to subscribers align with Percona’s open supply values?

Our reply was no.

Whereas well-intentioned, ProBuilds represented a drift away from the spirit that has outlined Percona for almost 20 years. We imagine open supply works greatest when the total expertise, together with how software program is packaged and distributed, is offered to the complete group.

Due to that, we determined to finish the ProBuilds experiment and return totally to a single, open distribution mannequin.

What Modifications Going Ahead

All options that have been beforehand packaged in ProBuilds at the moment are included in Percona’s public packages, obtainable to everybody.

There isn’t a longer a separate ProBuild monitor. No gated binaries. No particular packages restricted to a subset of customers.

This alteration applies to the next Percona software program:

• Percona Server for MySQL (PS)

• Percona XtraDB Cluster (PXC)

• Percona XtraBackup (PXB)

• Percona Server for MongoDB (PSMDB)

Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL by no means had ProBuilds and isn’t affected by this alteration.

Characteristic Transition Overview

Under is a abstract of the options which have moved from ProBuilds into the usual public packages.

See the discharge notes for every product for extra data.

Staying True to Our Values

Percona exists to serve the open supply database group. Our clients, customers, contributors, and companions depend on us to behave as accountable open supply stewards.

Winding down ProBuilds is about reaffirming that accountability.

We stay totally dedicated to open growth, clear distribution, and enterprise-grade assist constructed on really open software program.

Thanks to our group and clients for persevering with to carry us to a excessive commonplace and for constructing with us.

In case you have questions on this alteration or need assistance transitioning, the Percona staff is all the time right here to assist.