In 2022, to mark its first anniversary as an open source project, JuiceFS made a bold move: switching its license from AGPLv3 to Apache 2.0. At a time when many projects were going the opposite direction—adopting more restrictive licenses—we doubled down on openness. This lightning talk shares the thinking behind that decision, the risks we weighed, and the unexpected benefits it brought. I’ll also reflect on how this choice has shaped the growth and community of JuiceFS over the past few years, and what it means for sustainable open source in a commercial world.

Speakers:

Rui Su: Open-source advocate and co-founder of JuiceFS, a cloud-native distributed file system

Rui Su is the co-founder of Juicedata, creator of JuiceFS, an open-source distributed file system built on object storage. Over the past 7 years, he has led its evolution from a proprietary system to a globally adopted Apache 2.0 project. Rui is active in the distributed storage community. Before Juicedata, he founded a startup and led development of an online community that won China’s only Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica.