I don't think this really changes anything with MongoDB and how open or closed it is in practice. This really is just MongoDB clarifying their original intent with picking the AGPL. Basically, if you're going to offer MongoDB as a service, you either need to make all your service's code freely available, or you need a commercial relationship with MongoDB. This doesn't change anything for users of the software that are building applications.
This is just another highlight of the cloud vendors making it very difficult to build a business based on open source infrastructure software. Either you pick an infectious license (like AGPL) or you go open core. Otherwise, if your project gets popular, the cloud providers will offer it as a service, which will eat into your revenue.
This is just another highlight of the cloud vendors making it very difficult to build a business based on open source infrastructure software. Either you pick an infectious license (like AGPL) or you go open core. Otherwise, if your project gets popular, the cloud providers will offer it as a service, which will eat into your revenue.