How the Free Software Foundation Kept a Videoconferencing Software Free (fsf.org)
(Saturday January 10, 2026 @11:34AM (EditorDavid)
from the sharing-the-software dept.)
- Reference: 0180557886
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/01/10/0539228/how-the-free-software-foundation-kept-a-videoconferencing-software-free
- Source link: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/2026-values-into-practice
The Free Software Foundation's president Ian Kelling is also their senior systems administrator. This week he shared an example of how "the work we put in to making sure a program is free for us [1]also makes it free for the rest of the world ."
> During the COVID-19 pandemic, like everyone everywhere, the FSF increased its videoconferencing use, especially videoconferencing software that works in web browsers. We have experience hosting several different programs to accomplish this, and [2]BigBlueButton was an important one for us for a while. It is a videoconferencing service which describes itself as a virtual classroom because of its many features designed for educational environments, such as a shared whiteboard... In BigBlueButton 2.2, the program used a freely licensed version of MongoDB, but it unintentionally picked up MongoDB's 2018 nonfree license change in versions 2.3 and 2.4. At the FSF, we noticed this [after a four-hour review] and raised the alarm with the BigBlueButton team in late 2020.
>
> In many cases of a developer changing to a nonfree license, free forks have won out, but in this case no one judged it worth the effort to maintain a fork of the final free MongoDB version. This was a very unfortunate case for existing users of MongoDB, including the FSF, who were then faced with a challenge of maintaining their freedom by either running old and unmaintained software or switching over to a different free program. Luckily, the free software world is not especially lacking in high quality database software, and there is also a wide array of free videoconferencing software. At the FSF, we decided to spend some effort to make sure MongoDB would no longer make BigBlueButton nonfree, to help other users of MongoDB and BigBlueButton. We think BigBlueButton is really useful for [3]free software in schools , where it is incredibly important to have free software.
>
> On the tech team, especially when it comes to software running in a web browser, we are used to making modifications to better suit our needs. In the end, we didn't find a perfect solution, but we did find [4]FerretDB to be a promising MongoDB alternative and assisted the developers of FerretDB to see what would be required for it to work in BigBlueButton. The BigBlueButton developers decided that some architectural level changes for their 3.0 release would be the path for them to remove MongoDB. As of BigBlueButton 3.0, released in 2025, BigBlueButton is back to being entirely free software...!
>
> As you can see, in the world of free software, trust can be tricky, and this is part of why organizations like the FSF are so important.
Kelling notes he's part of a tech team of just two people reponsible for "63 different services, platforms, and websites for the FSF staff, the GNU Project, other community projects, and the wider free software community..."
[1] https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/2026-values-into-practice
[2] https://bigbluebutton.org/
[3] https://gnu.org/education/
[4] https://www.ferretdb.com/
> During the COVID-19 pandemic, like everyone everywhere, the FSF increased its videoconferencing use, especially videoconferencing software that works in web browsers. We have experience hosting several different programs to accomplish this, and [2]BigBlueButton was an important one for us for a while. It is a videoconferencing service which describes itself as a virtual classroom because of its many features designed for educational environments, such as a shared whiteboard... In BigBlueButton 2.2, the program used a freely licensed version of MongoDB, but it unintentionally picked up MongoDB's 2018 nonfree license change in versions 2.3 and 2.4. At the FSF, we noticed this [after a four-hour review] and raised the alarm with the BigBlueButton team in late 2020.
>
> In many cases of a developer changing to a nonfree license, free forks have won out, but in this case no one judged it worth the effort to maintain a fork of the final free MongoDB version. This was a very unfortunate case for existing users of MongoDB, including the FSF, who were then faced with a challenge of maintaining their freedom by either running old and unmaintained software or switching over to a different free program. Luckily, the free software world is not especially lacking in high quality database software, and there is also a wide array of free videoconferencing software. At the FSF, we decided to spend some effort to make sure MongoDB would no longer make BigBlueButton nonfree, to help other users of MongoDB and BigBlueButton. We think BigBlueButton is really useful for [3]free software in schools , where it is incredibly important to have free software.
>
> On the tech team, especially when it comes to software running in a web browser, we are used to making modifications to better suit our needs. In the end, we didn't find a perfect solution, but we did find [4]FerretDB to be a promising MongoDB alternative and assisted the developers of FerretDB to see what would be required for it to work in BigBlueButton. The BigBlueButton developers decided that some architectural level changes for their 3.0 release would be the path for them to remove MongoDB. As of BigBlueButton 3.0, released in 2025, BigBlueButton is back to being entirely free software...!
>
> As you can see, in the world of free software, trust can be tricky, and this is part of why organizations like the FSF are so important.
Kelling notes he's part of a tech team of just two people reponsible for "63 different services, platforms, and websites for the FSF staff, the GNU Project, other community projects, and the wider free software community..."
[1] https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/2026-values-into-practice
[2] https://bigbluebutton.org/
[3] https://gnu.org/education/
[4] https://www.ferretdb.com/
Never Heard of BBB . . . (Score:1)
by Kunedog ( 1033226 )
. . . but somehow I hear of MongoDB daily!
Re: (Score:3)
by godrik ( 1287354 )
BBB is fairly popular in Europe.
It is also seemingly integrated in Canvas (a Learning Management System used in many schools and university in the US)
FSF to M$: Windows should be free (Score:1)
by firecode ( 119868 )
FSF must tell Microsoft that Windows should be free like Linux.
"a software" ? (Score:2)
Pedantic yes but grammar note: It is a program, a piece of software, or a system. You cannot have "a software" just like you do not have "a clothing," "an information," or "a hardware." Same should go for the awkward and wrong "a firmware" too. It's a piece of software, or just a program. Dr. Pedantic signing out.
Re: (Score:2)
Where did you see the phrase "a software"? Maybe my searching ability has degraded: I don't see that use anywhere in the summary, in the original article, or on the BigBlueButton main webpage.
Thanks.