MongoDB[1] is open-source document NoSQL database with a problem. While very popular, cloud companies, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS)[2], IBM Cloud[3], Scalegrid[4], and ObjectRocket[5] has profited from it by offering it as a service while MongoDB Inc.[6] hasn't been able to monetize it to the same degree. MongoDB's answer? Relicense the program under its new Server Side Public License (SSPL)[7]. Open-source powerhouse Red Hat[8]'s reaction? Drop MongoDB from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8[9].
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Red Hat's Technical and Community Outreach Program Manager Tom Callaway explained, in a note stating MongoDB is being removed from Fedora Linux[12], that "It is the belief of Fedora that the SSPL is intentionally crafted to be aggressively discriminatory towards a specific class of users.[13]" Debian Linux had already dropped MongoDB[14] from its distribution.
The specific objection is that SSPL requires, if you offer services licensed under it, that you must open-source all programs that you use to make the software available as a service. When Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer infamously warned of Linux's GPL being