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question: Why was OpenSearch created?
category: General
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Developers embrace open source software for many reasons, one of the most important is the freedom to use that software where and how they wish. Elastic ceased making open source options available for Elasticsearch and Kibana, releasing them under the Elastic license, with source code available under the Elastic License or SSPL. These are not open source and do not offer users the same freedoms. Because of this, we made the decision to create a fork from the last Apache 2.0 version of Elasticsearch and Kibana and provide OpenSearch under the Apache
License, Version 2.0 (ALv2).

ALv2 grants well-understood and permissive usage rights that match the freedoms people expect with open source software; freedoms such as being able to use, modify, extend, monetize, and resell the open source software where and how they want. For OpenSearch, we believe this will enable broad adoption and contributions benefiting all members of the community.