The open source threat bringing back vendor lock-in

Corporate abandonment of open source licenses is reviving vendor lock-in, threatening the ecosystem freedoms that transformed computing. The Redis-to-Valkey saga is cited as a prime example: Redis relicensed to a closed model, got forked by the community as Valkey, then reversed course — but the trust damage was done. Intel's retreat from open source contributions is another warning sign, driven by short-term quarterly thinking over long-term ecosystem health. Developers are urged to actively defend open source by thanking maintainers at conferences, voicing opposition to relicensing decisions, and sticking with open versions when projects go closed. SQL and relational databases are also highlighted as enduring foundations that repeatedly outlast hype cycles.