Popular Linux organizations X.org/Freedesktop.org and Alpine Linux must look for new web hosting. Donors are discontinuing bare-metal servers, forcing both services to seek a new home.
This reports Arstechnica. Both services relied largely on free server resources provided by Equinix (formerly Packet.net) and its Metal division. Equinix recently announced it would stop offering bare-metal servers – renting out physical, individual computers rather than virtualized and shared hardware.
According to the Phronix blog, both software organizations have until the end of April to find and fund new hosting, with some hefty bandwidth and development requirements.
An issue ticket on Freedesktop.org’s GitLab repository details the situation and the project’s specific needs. The space donated by Equinix was used by both the X.org Foundation (home of the 40-year-old window system) and Freedesktop.org (a shared base of specifications and technology for free software desktops, including Wayland and more).
400GB of database storage
Although the collaboration is coming to an end, Benjamin Tissoires, the project administrator, shows gratitude on the issue page. He states that Equinix Metal was always very kind and generous. While it is unfortunate that his service will have to move in the near future, everything comes to an end. Tissoires describes the project’s needs. It involves over 400GB of database and nearly 100TB of storage data.
Possible improvements for the next hosting environment include a delivery service like Cloudflare or Fastly, to keep AI scrapers at bay. According to Tissoires, Freedesktop has a lot of AI bots that literally drain our entire GitLab instance.
After working day and night to move from Google Cloud Platform after the open-source credits there expired and now having to move from Equinix quickly, Tissoires proposes a new plan. He wants Freedesktop.org to pay for its own servers and then have sponsors contribute.
Alpine seeks space near Netherlands
Alpine Linux, a small, security-focused distribution widely used in containers and embedded devices, also desperately needs a new home. As mentioned in their blog, Alpine Linux consumes about 800TB of bandwidth each month. It also needs continuous integration runners (separate job agents) and a development server. Alpine is looking for co-location space and bare-metal servers near the Netherlands. But it is considering virtual machines if bare-metal is not an option.
Like X.org/Freedesktop, Alpine sees this moment as a wake-up call. In response to questions from Arstechnica, Alpine board member Carlo Landmeter explained that Alpine Linux is an open-source project that became popular without most users knowing it. Users are starting to donate, and companies are offering help, but Landmeter said it is still early in the process.
Occasionally, those working on the fundamentals of open-source software are faced with the difference between a project’s importance and the support and funding it receives. Perhaps some people or organizations will take on the harder work of finding a sustainable future for these projects.