NATS and the CNCF kerfuffle (Interview)

The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

Derek Collison — creator of NATS and Co-founder & CEO of Synadia — joins the show to dive into the origins, design, and evolution of NATS, a high-performance, open-source messaging system built for modern cloud-native systems and part of the CNCF. Derek shares the story behind NATS, what makes it unique, and unpacks the recent tensions between Synadia and the CNCF over the future of the project.

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Featuring:

• Derek Collison – GitHub, X
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
• Jerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

• NATS.io
• Protecting NATS and the integrity of open source: CNCF’s commitment to the community
• CNCF and Synadia Align on Securing the Future of the NATS.io Project
• Synadia and the NATS project

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Kapitler

1. This week on The Changelog (00:00:00)

2. Sponsor: Heroku (00:01:07)

https://www.heroku.com/changelogpodcast

3. Start the show! (00:04:49)

4. When did NATS start? (00:06:32)

5. Huge adoption for NATS (00:11:01)

6. Ladybird + Swift (00:17:06)

7. I'm still in the technical trenches of NATS (00:21:45)

8. We should build a business around this (00:22:54)

9. Future of modern distributed systems (00:26:51)

10. Sponsor: Retool (00:29:51)

https://retool.com/changelog

11. Kerfuffle with CNCF (00:31:38)

12. Was CNCF's blog post a surprise? (00:38:23)

13. How clear were the requirements and expectations? (00:43:58)

14. Did you try to take your ball and go home? (00:54:58)

15. Sponsor: Outshift by Cisco (01:00:39)

https://agntcy.org

16. Goals for leaving the CNCF hotel? (01:01:44)

17. Did NATS turnover the IP and trademark? (01:07:54)

18. Did you sign a clear agreement with terms spelled out? (01:12:31)

19. Commercial BSL fork vs open core (01:18:55)

20. There's SO MUCH nuance in this (01:23:07)

21. Rug pull, not cool. No pay, not OK. (01:33:00)

22. Closing thoughts and stuff (01:33:55)