Years ago I wrote a piece called Open Source Bait and Switch. The short version: a project is released as open source while it has no business model, a community forms around it, and then the bill comes due. The project either rots into abandonware because nobody can afford to maintain it, or it sprouts a home-grown "source available" license that quietly takes back the freedoms it was given on. You have watched this happen. So have I.
What is Codename One? Codename One is an open-source framework for building native iOS, Android, desktop, and web apps from a single Java or Kotlin codebase. Learn more at codenameone.com.
We have spent fourteen years trying not to become either of those stories. This is a release post, and most of it is the features that shipped this week, but the thread running through them is worth saying out loud first, because two of this week's headline features, analytics and last week's crash protection, are the clearest example yet of how we intend to keep the lights on without charging you for the freedom you already have.
The deal we actually offer
Codename One the open source project and Codename One the company are not the same thing, and that distinction is the whole game. The project has to stay open: it is licensed under the GNU GPL with the Classpath Exception, the same license the JDK ships under, so you can fork it, build closed-source apps on top of it, and run the whole build toolchain yourself. That license choice is the point, not a footnote. The piece I linked above argued that the sustainable way to fund open source is a strong copyleft license plus a real commercial offering, not a permissive license you quietly relicense once the community is locked in. Codename One has been GPL with the Classpath Exception the entire time. The exception keeps your apps yours; the copyleft keeps a free, forkable Codename One in the world no matter what the company does or who owns it.
