SpringSource Enterprise Maintenance Policy FAQ

(revised October 7th, 2008)

What is the new maintenance policy?

1. SpringSource will make regular source and binary releases of the current major version of Spring available to the community until the next major version is available (defined as a release candidate for that version). After this point we will make all bug fixes and improvements available to the community in the current version only. Any back-ports will only be made available to subscription customers
2. SpringSource Enterprise customers who wish to continue to receive maintenance releases for previous versions of Spring will receive these releases for three years from the initial GA release of that version.

Why did you revise the policy from the one posted on September 17th?
We always listen to our community and we believe that this will resolve many of the concerns that had been raised by our community. Rod Johnson’s blog provides a detailed description of the thought process behind the change.

Why is SpringSource introducing a maintenance policy?
As SpringSource technologies have grown in depth and breadth to meet the demands from the community, we must invest heavily in sustaining engineering (maintenance), product build and quality assurance/testing aspects of Spring. With more organizations running on previous releases of our software, we must recoup the cost of supporting all previous branches of the software with ongoing maintenance releases.

Our Enterprise customers pay for the ability to remain on a stable production platform as well as other benefits, while open source users can use the availability of the source code to maintain their versions. SpringSource's Enterprise customers expect to receive the same degree of support & maintenance on our products that they receive from their other software providers. This includes a commitment to maintain and update older releases of our products, which had not been a policy until now.

Is Spring remaining open source?
Yes, of course. Source code will continue to be openly available in the source code repository.

Are you changing the license of Spring Projects?
No.

What is the definition of a major release?
A major release is defined as a release which incorporates major new functionality into the software. A major release is indicated by a change in either the first or second digit of the version number. Going from 2.5 to 3.0 or from 3.0 to 3.1 would be considered a major releases.

How does the open source community get access to bug fixes?
The open source community will continue to have access to new fixes. Such fixed issues will be available in the source code repository as part of the current development stream. These fixes will be incorporated into the next point release or the next major release.

Will older versions of Spring receive any bug fixes? We will provide maintenance releases on a major version until the next major version is available. After this point we will make all bug fixes and improvements available to the community in the current version only. Any back-ports will only be made available to subscription customers

Does this policy require organizations to pay for support?
No. Users can either buy a SpringSource subscription, which includes 24x7 support and the value adds in SpringSource Enterprise, or, for those comfortable with self-support, they will always have access to the latest released version.

What is SpringSource's commitment to open source?
We make a huge and growing investment in providing what is probably the highest quality open source code base in enterprise Java. We've made approximately 100 open source releases in the last twelve months alone.

When SpringSource makes binary releases to the community will they be available in the Maven repository? Will they be tagged in the source control system?
Yes, the releases will available to the Maven repository just as we have done in the past. Yes, we will publicly tag the release in the source control system.

After reading the policy, I feel that I don't need your enterprise product and support and I can just keep going the way I was, what's the catch?
There is no catch. We are completely OK with you using Spring without a support contract. Organizations who want to purchase a support contract from us demand a stable long-term production environment with regular maintenance releases.

Will SpringSource still be accepting patches or other contributions from the community?
Absolutely. We appreciate the contribution of our large and talented community to Spring's success. Accepted contributions from the community will continue to help to improve Spring and will be incorporated into the current development stream.

I redistribute Spring in my open source project. How does this policy affect me?
Thank you for contributing to the open source community and using Spring in your project. Spring maintenance releases will allow you to confidently work with and distribute an up to date version of Spring with your project.

I redistribute Spring in my closed source product. How does this policy affect me?
Spring maintenance releases will allow you to confidently work with and distribute an up to date version of Spring with your product. However, if your customers use your product in a mission critical setting, you and they will benefit not merely from SpringSource maintenance releases but SpringSource's 24x7 support offerings. SpringSource has an extensive partnership program.

Under what license are the SpringSource Enterprise maintenance releases distributed?
The SpringSource Enterprise maintenance releases are distributed under our commercial license along with the development and management tools in the SpringSource Performance Suite. Additionally these releases come with other benefits like 24x7 global support.

What other changes have been made?
We heard a strong demand for our Enterprise releases from small end users and systems integrators. We have created programs specifically designed to meet the needs of small businesses. Descriptions of these programs will be published on the SpringSource web site by mid-October. Smaller organizations, primarily systems integrators and consulting companies, as well as some end users, have requested a way to more cost effectively access the benefits of using SpringSource Enterprise. We are creating the following programs for smaller companies:

• For end user companies under 25 people, we are eliminating our minimum contract size requirements and are providing a Small Business Express offering which includes the SpringSource Application Platform, which includes our Enterprise software and a support offering.
• For consultants and systems integrators, we will provide the SpringSource Application Platform, for use on client projects, at a significantly reduced cost.