This page compiles answers to frequently-asked questions regarding Hibernate joining the Commonhaus Foundation.
Why move to a foundation?
We would like to open up space for other groups and companies to also feel included in the project.
Which Hibernate projects are moving to a foundation?
All Hibernate projects are moving, including in particular ORM, Validator, Reactive, Search, and Tools.
Why Commonhaus?
The main reason to pick Commonhaus over another foundation was its governance framework, which emphasizes project self-governance.
See in particular its guiding principles.
Why not [put your favorite foundation here]?
See Commonhaus’ own FAQ.
What does the move consist of exactly?
The move consists of donating intellectual property owned by Red Hat and related to Hibernate projects.
The donated intellectual property includes in particular:
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the Hibernate trademark;
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related domain names.
It does not include copyright, since Red Hat does not have exclusive claims to copyright on Hibernate code.
How is Red Hat’s involvement in Hibernate changing?
Red Hat’s involvement in Hibernate remains as strong as ever.
The Hibernate team is expecting increased collaboration between Red Hat and other companies, which may require setting time aside to get new contributors on board — but that would also mean more work being done overall.
What is changing in practice for contributors to Hibernate projects?
Commonhaus requires Hibernate to adhere to its policies, including in particular its code of conduct, intellectual property policy and trademark policy.
Only the code of conduct is expected to affect everyday work of contributors, and then in a good way.
The project’s core contributors, internal governance and processes remain the same.
Are there plans for further changes?
The only other planned change is moving Hibernate projects to the Apache License (v2), but this is not a requirement to join the Commonhaus foundation, and for most projects the license change is still in early investigation phases.
