2.3-dev installs newer mongodb which is nonfree/proprietary

[ian-kelling]

Mongodb changed the license of version 4+ to a nonfree/proprietary license in early 2019. bbb-install for 2.2 uses mongodb 3.4, but bbb 2.3 installs mongodb 4.2. Unfortunately, mongodb only provides packages for ubuntu 18.04 that are 4.x version.

Info about the nonfree/proprietary SSPL license: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MongoDB#Licensing

I administer bbb for several organizations which require their communication software to be entirely free software, meaning that it only uses software with licenses approved as free software by the Free Software Foundation (or a related organization like debian if its a license FSF hasn't reviewed). I need to know if bbb plans to replace mongodb 4.x with a free software database, or if they would accept a contribution that removes it. Many software projects have migrated from mongodb to postresql due to this licensing problem.

[ian-kelling]

I just learned about this program https://www.percona.com/software/mongodb/percona-server-for-mongodb, which is a mongodb compatible replacement for the proprietary mongodb and is available for ubuntu 18.04. I suggest for the bbb developers to try it out.

[ffdixon]

Thanks for sharing this Ian. We'll take a closer look.

[ian-kelling]

Well, nevermind about percona. I was tricked by their website. It still uses code from mongodb under the Server Side Public License.

[carroarmato0]

With some other recent changes to other open-source software changing their license to SSPL, the plot thickens. The percona folks actually wrote a good blog post about it https://www.percona.com/blog/2020/06/16/why-is-mongodbs-sspl-bad-for-you/

The only thing that's missing is the part where you infuriate the community so they look for other tools

[ffdixon]

We are not using mongoDB for offering database as a service (such as Amazon); rather, we're using it as an embedded database within BigBlueButton.

We wrote BigBlueButton as an open source web conferencing system for online learning, and it will remain open source.

I need to know if bbb plans to replace mongodb 4.x with a free software database, or if they would accept a contribution that removes it.

We are using mongoDB, but are not tied to it forever. Our goal is to move to Ubuntu 18.04 quickly and, at the same time, improve the overall stability and scalability while adding new features for customers for teachers and students.

We will explore other options in the future and we would look closely at any contribution that allows us to move away from mongoDB while maintaining the above goals.

[akuckartz]

We are not using mongoDB for offering database as a service (such as Amazon); rather, we're using it as an embedded database within BigBlueButton.

The question here is: What are the implications of that license? And how will lawyers react?

[paulmenzel]

What components use MongoDB? I thought it’s for Etherpad.

[pabs3]

I note there is MangoDB, which translates the MongoDB client protocol into SQL and passes it to PostgreSQL:

https://www.mangodb.io/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29071623

[valerio-bozzolan]

Is this proprietary dependency (still?) required by BigBlueButton itself in 2023?

[hex-m]

related: There is a discussion about packaging BigBlueButton for Debian: bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton#8861

[TiagoJacobs]

Hello!

BigBlueButton 3.0 no longer uses MongoDB (at all).

@antobinary - can you confirm if mongo is not installed anymore, so we can close this issue as fixed?

[antobinary]

When we merge #752 this can be closed!