RyanL Bitwarden Employee

Hello everyone!

Starting in the next release, the Bitwarden apps published to the various stores will be the commercially licensed builds. No action is needed, and the apps will work exactly as they do today.

Bitwarden remains committed to open source security and transparency
The GPLv3 OSS licensed version continues to be updated and published on GitHub
All current features are available in both versions
License details are on GitHub
Bitwarden remains committed to a robust, free forever plan for everyone

If you have any questions, please ask them in this thread. Thanks all!

EDIT:

Bitwarden is not going closed-source
You can still fork Bitwarden
No change to self-hosting, the licensing change affects those who are repackaging and reselling Bitwarden
The free plan is here to stay permanently
  • Thomas Cloer@ieji.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    35
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 day ago

    @Mustachius_Grumpius “The GPLv3 OSS licensed version continues to be updated and published on GitHub

    All current features are available in both versions

    License details are on GitHub

    Bitwarden remains committed to a robust, free forever plan for everyone”

    • flop_leash_973@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      15 hours ago

      If there is no intention to put the screws to the user base, then why do it on the first place?

      We all know how this game ends when venture capital gets involved.

        • dustyData@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          4 hours ago

          Split versions is usually the first step. Many projects have done so before. Next year there will be some technical reason they can’t keep feature parity with the commercial repository, and it will drift from the OSS repository. Oops, we broke compatibility, sowwy guys. A couple of years later the OSS repository will be closed because it is a security risk. By that point the company and management would’ve drifted so far from the initial values of the project that people won’t notice. Those who cared will have jumped ship to alternatives sooner, those who noticed later will be already too deep into depending on the software that they will keep paying the subscription.

          I have no evidence, but I also don’t have any doubts this is the plan.

    • badgermurphy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      79
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      22 hours ago

      Unfortunately, there is no historical example where this hasn’t turned predatory. It’s a tale as old as venture capital has been in software development:

      • get free contributions from altruistic people donating their time and expertise to your FOSS project that you’re selling
      • make a closed-source set of extensions as optional dependencies
      • slowly diverge the closed source feature set to include developer and user “must-haves” you do not contribute upstream
      • slow or functionally halt open source contributions

      It is an oft-repeated long con to pull off a mass heist of donated skill and time while imposing vendor lock-in on your users through a back door.

      "As the poison spread through his body, the frog cried out, “Why did you sting me? You have killed us both!”

      The scorpion replied, “I couldn’t help it. It’s my nature.”

    • freely1333@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 day ago

      I kinda thought the paid plan already had extra features no? Like silly ones but I swear it isn’t just donations right?

      • 4am@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        1 day ago

        It had cloud storage, built in TOTP with autofill, and some had features like organizations and sharing

        Still, this fucking sucks. Bitwarden was literally created as a ln answer to this shit happening to LastPass and Dashlane.

        • freely1333@reddthat.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 day ago

          I get it because minio dying burned me hard but so long as it keeps operating as it does now do we need more features? I would be fine with a continuously secure version of exactly what it does now. I kinda hate feature bloat