Pheonix transitions to AGPL Licence

[abose]

Prelude to Phoenix

Phoenix is based on Adobe Brackets released under the MIT license. Phoenix was started when Adobe decided to pull the plug on brackets in a complicated dance that is a topic of another blog post some other day. Being part of the brackets core team from the initial days of brackets, we stuck to the MIT license to continue the true spirit of the original devs of brackets. Phoenix was designed to work only in web browsers, it will not have a native desktop counterpart.

Edit : We heard our community loud and clear- Phoenix will have native builds in all platforms. But our primary experience will be focused around native Browser functionality.

We later joined our efforts to help rebuild the brackets community under the brackets continued community. Phoenix being an active contributor to the brackets Org will help to continue the legacy of the original devs of brackets under the MIT license. Phoenix features relevant to brackets will also be added to brackets under the MIT license with our full support.

Inflection point

We are strong proponents of the free software movement and every software we build at core.ai should be free and auditable by the end-users whose data the software handles. We should be also able to explicitly grant patent licenses(rather than implicit grants under MIT subject to interpretation) to any derivative work under GPL for advancing technology. GPL software ensures these rights are guaranteed to everyone. It is akin to the right to repair movement for software. We could not ensure this freedom with the MIT license. But we choose the MIT license to honor the brackets developers. We will continue to honor the commitment by our direct contribution to the brackets org.

Fin

We will continue to deliver features in Phoenix to the brackets community under the MIT license. With our involvement in the brackets community, Phoenix can now pursue its free software path separately. Phoenix will transition to AGPL license starting 31-Oct-2021. With this transition, a new editor joins the free software community and we are excited to contribute our part to the free software community.