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| 6f02e7 | Samuli Seppänen | 2025-01-29 06:40:08 | 1 | # OpenVPN 2.4/3.x |
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| 3 | ## Contributor License Agreement (CLA) |
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| 4 | - This is required to distribute OpenVPN on Apple's AppStore and possibly other stores (e.g., Windows Marketplace) due to their incompatibility with the AGPLv3 license. |
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| 5 | - It's important to minimize the scope of the agreement: |
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| 6 | - Android contributor license agreements appear well-crafted and we can assume they are backed by substantial legal expertise and resources. |
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| 8 | ## Permissive Licensing |
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| 9 | - It’s currently unclear if adopting a permissive license would completely eliminate the need for a CLA. |
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| 10 | - Potential licenses include BSD, MIT, Apache. |
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| 11 | - Releasing OpenVPN 3.0 under a permissive license may lead to (big) companies forking it, potentially resulting in numerous incompatible forks. |
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| 12 | - To combat potential fragmentation, standardizing the OpenVPN protocol might be necessary, though this comes with substantial overhead. |
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| 14 | ## Minimizing the Scope of the CLA |
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| 15 | - This approach reduces risks related to fragmentation, forks, and loss of contributions. |
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| 16 | - Aim to maximize the potential to extend OpenVPN through isolated APIs: |
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| 17 | - Plugins and similar extensions would not require a CLA. |
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| 18 | - Extension mechanisms in OpenVPN: |
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| 19 | - **2.x:** |
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| 20 | - Plugin API |
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| 21 | - Management interface |
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| 22 | - SSL library abstraction |
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| 23 | - Platform support (isolated by `#ifdefs`) |
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| 24 | - **3.x:** |
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| 25 | - SSL library abstraction |
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| 26 | - Other mechanisms |
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| 27 | - Potential separation of server-side and client-side code, where only the client-side would need a CLA. |
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| 29 | ## Public Release Date for OpenVPN 3.x Codebase |
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| 30 | - Source packages are currently available in old tar.gz formats. |
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| 31 | - James aims to release this in the coming weeks. |
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| 33 | ## Future of OpenVPN 2.x and 3.x |
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| 34 | - Transitioning to the AGPLv3-licensed OpenVPN 3.x codebase is favorable, provided that the negative impact of the CLA is minimized. |
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| 35 | - OpenVPN 2.x will remain maintained until 3.x can effectively replace it: |
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| 36 | - This may include releasing versions up to 2.5. |