Yes the structure of DuckDab is somewhat complex. There's three entities:
DuckLabs: the company been sold to AWS, employing the engineers who work on DuckDB
DuckDB foundation: the foundation who owns the IP for DuckDB
MotherDuck: a company which provides cloud services on top of DuckDB.
In theory the fact that the foundation exists should mean that the source of DuckDB is somewhat insulated from AWS changes but given all the engineers who work full time on DuckDB are employed by DuckLabs, doesn't seem the best sign...
I met one of the founders at a conference once and they were very proud of never taking venture capital like Polars, so they can be independent. Seams to be the end of that era…
It does seem like such a change, I can't help but wonder if Amazon made them an offer they couldn't refuse - join us, or we'll fork it and compete with you for revenue.
I'm not saying I agree with the outcome even if that was the scenario - just trying to understand the decision they made.
This is a fun idea, but in reality most things come back to money. If someone offers you enough money, it effectively means: enough to sort out your immediate needs, pay off debts, sort out comfortable living for your family, and savings for the future, solve most daily problems, enable you and family to do more of the things you value outside of work. There's a chance you value running a company more than that, or value independent duckdb, or hate Amazon more than that, but... do you really? Almost everything else you value can be improved by an Amazon level buyout.
The other side is basically "I have enough financial safety for current needs, future savings, and to meet my life values", rather than a different priority of values. (So they've been already paid their price rather than don't have a price) You very rarely see people who would sacrifice the other elements to fulfil their values, when you give them a chance to have both.
[OP] stephenr | a day ago
Well, crap.
I'm not even a user of DuckDB (yet) and already this seems not great for anyone except Amazon and the handful of people who just got rich.
gcarvalho | a day ago
As I understand it, DuckLabs and MotherDuck are separate companies.
Considering MotherDuck is also selling cloud infrastructure for DuckDB, I wonder how this affects their position.
lalitm | a day ago
Yes the structure of DuckDab is somewhat complex. There's three entities:
In theory the fact that the foundation exists should mean that the source of DuckDB is somewhat insulated from AWS changes but given all the engineers who work full time on DuckDB are employed by DuckLabs, doesn't seem the best sign...
Student | a day ago
DuckDB2 owned by the DuckDB2 foundation is absolutely a possibility
JulianWgs | 21 hours ago
I met one of the founders at a conference once and they were very proud of never taking venture capital like Polars, so they can be independent. Seams to be the end of that era…
[OP] stephenr | 19 hours ago
It does seem like such a change, I can't help but wonder if Amazon made them an offer they couldn't refuse - join us, or we'll fork it and compete with you for revenue.
I'm not saying I agree with the outcome even if that was the scenario - just trying to understand the decision they made.
sigmonsez | a day ago
sell outs =/
mjec | a day ago
we all have our price
andrewrk | a day ago
In order to believe that, one must be ignorant of the existence of things more valuable than money.
viraptor | 18 hours ago
This is a fun idea, but in reality most things come back to money. If someone offers you enough money, it effectively means: enough to sort out your immediate needs, pay off debts, sort out comfortable living for your family, and savings for the future, solve most daily problems, enable you and family to do more of the things you value outside of work. There's a chance you value running a company more than that, or value independent duckdb, or hate Amazon more than that, but... do you really? Almost everything else you value can be improved by an Amazon level buyout.
lpil | 18 hours ago
Doesn't that only work if you presume that you are unable to achieve those elsewhere?
viraptor | 17 hours ago
The other side is basically "I have enough financial safety for current needs, future savings, and to meet my life values", rather than a different priority of values. (So they've been already paid their price rather than don't have a price) You very rarely see people who would sacrifice the other elements to fulfil their values, when you give them a chance to have both.
lpil | 17 hours ago
I'm an open source professional, so it's very common for me to meet and work with people who have made that choice. I am even one of them!
natkr | 16 hours ago
And getting criticised is… part of the price you pay for doing it? This was always a really weird defense of the practice.
icefox | 11 hours ago
I don't see it as a defense as much as a warning, personally.