> 3) What is and is not open source is clearly documented in the Elastic repository. There is zero ambiguity here (legal or otherwise) unlike what Amazon implies in their marketing. If it's in the x-pack directory, it may be closed sourced (some plugins are OSS). If that bothers you, use the before mentioned OSS builds. Everything outside the x-pack directory is OSS. OSS here qualifies as Apache 2.0 licensed or compatible. It's that simple.
While this statement is true, it is not clearly documented in their actual documentation! For many years the pricing model around X-Pack was incredibly opaque and the documentation did everything possible to encourage you to use it while keeping the warnings around licensing issues were buried deep in the appendices.
I certainly didn't read elasticsearch's source tree when learning how to operate it -- I started in the docs like most everyone else.
Also, your super responsible sysadmins probably aren't pulling elastic's source code to run on your servers, they're using the distro packages (which do mix free and non-free) which is also what the docs tell you to do.
They've long addressed all of that. There are helpful x-pack tags on the documentation for features that aren't in the OSS release. Check here for example on the documentation page for index life cycle management: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/curr...
The pricing model for their platinum features is indeed opaque (as in most small companies can't afford this, and you'd have to talk to a sales rep to find out). Those features are also clearly marked. X-pack features are free to use. Also, if you try to use these features without the proper license key, it won't work for obvious reasons. There's zero risk of using this accidentally without first agreeing to some license.
Also, each single source file includes details on how it is licensed. There's zero chance of a developer not seeing that if they are preparing some code patch. This is intentional; it's not optional to document stuff like this if you are serious about enforcing your copyright; which of course they are.
Sysadmins pulling elasticsearch from a linux distro repo of course happens. Presumably they'd be getting an OSS build and not bundle proprietary components because they tend to care about not shipping proprietary code. If you go to the Elastic download pages, there are convenient links to both.
While this statement is true, it is not clearly documented in their actual documentation! For many years the pricing model around X-Pack was incredibly opaque and the documentation did everything possible to encourage you to use it while keeping the warnings around licensing issues were buried deep in the appendices.
I certainly didn't read elasticsearch's source tree when learning how to operate it -- I started in the docs like most everyone else.
Also, your super responsible sysadmins probably aren't pulling elastic's source code to run on your servers, they're using the distro packages (which do mix free and non-free) which is also what the docs tell you to do.