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commit 1ed26b3dad1093932fa92b8b0477ec79e94cc02a Author: Claus Ibsen <[email protected]> AuthorDate: Sun Jun 7 10:54:16 2026 +0200 blog: The Always-On Project - 19 years of uninterrupted Camel development Co-Authored-By: Claude <[email protected]> Signed-off-by: Claus Ibsen <[email protected]> --- content/blog/2026/06/camel-always-on/index.md | 178 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 178 insertions(+) diff --git a/content/blog/2026/06/camel-always-on/index.md b/content/blog/2026/06/camel-always-on/index.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f3324954 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/blog/2026/06/camel-always-on/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,178 @@ +--- +title: "The Always-On Project: 19 Years of Uninterrupted Apache Camel Development" +date: 2026-06-08 +draft: true +authors: [davsclaus] +categories: ["Features"] +preview: "232 consecutive months of commits, 272 releases on Maven Central, a new release every 15 days, and never more than 3 days of silence since 2015. The data behind Apache Camel's unbroken track record." +--- + +In our [previous post](/blog/2026/06/camel-bug-fix-track-record/), we looked at how the Apache +Camel community handles bugs — 7,070 fixed with a median resolution time of 1 day. But bug fixes +are only part of the story. The deeper question for any organization evaluating an open-source +dependency is: **will this project still be here, actively maintained, when we need it?** + +We went through 19 years of [git history](https://github.com/apache/camel) and +[Maven Central](https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/camel/camel-core/) data to find out. + +The short version: **81,234 commits. 272 releases. 232 consecutive months of activity. Zero gaps.** + +## 232 months without a break + +Since the very first commit in March 2007, there has been **at least one commit every single +month** — 232 consecutive months as of June 2026. Not a single month of inactivity in 19 years. + +But "at least one commit per month" is a low bar. What does the daily picture look like? + +| Year | Active Days | Out of | Coverage | +|------|-------------|--------|----------| +| 2008 | 319 | 366 | 87% | +| 2010 | 335 | 365 | 92% | +| 2012 | 346 | 366 | 95% | +| 2014 | 336 | 365 | 92% | +| 2016 | 367 | 366 | 100% | +| 2018 | 341 | 365 | 93% | +| 2020 | 367 | 366 | 100% | +| 2022 | 351 | 365 | 96% | +| 2024 | 358 | 366 | 98% | +| 2025 | 356 | 365 | 98% | + +Since 2008, the project has had commits on **92–100% of all days in every year**. That's not a +seasonal project with bursts of activity. It's a continuous operation. + +**The longest silence since 2015 is 3 days** — over Christmas/New Year. The all-time record was 10 days +in April 2007, in the project's first weeks. Since the project matured, it has essentially never +gone quiet. + +## 272 releases — a new one every 15 days + +Apache Camel has published **272 GA releases** to Maven Central since the first release on +July 2, 2007. No milestones, no release candidates — 272 production-ready releases +that users can depend on. + +Here is the full release history by year: + +| Year | Releases | Year | Releases | +|------|----------|------|----------| +| 2007 | 3 | 2017 | 14 | +| 2008 | 3 | 2018 | 12 | +| 2009 | 5 | 2019 | 14 | +| 2010 | 6 | 2020 | 17 | +| 2011 | 11 | 2021 | 21 | +| 2012 | 13 | 2022 | 19 | +| 2013 | 13 | 2023 | **28** | +| 2014 | 11 | 2024 | 20 | +| 2015 | 12 | 2025 | **27** | +| 2016 | 12 | 2026* | 11 | + +*2026 is partial (through June)* + +The project has shipped **10 or more releases every year for 16 consecutive years** (2011–2026). +That streak has never been broken — through major version transitions, global events, and +the complete rewrite from Camel 2.x to 3.x to 4.x. + +In the last 5 years (2021–2026), the pace has been **126 releases**, averaging a new release +**every 15 days**. The median gap between releases is just 13 days. + +## The gap analysis: what's the worst case? + +For an enterprise dependency, the question isn't just "how often do they release?" — it's +"what's the longest I might wait?" + +Here are the largest gaps between consecutive GA releases on Maven Central — across the project's +entire history: + +| Gap | Between | Period | +|-----|---------|--------| +| 174 days | 1.2.0 → 1.3.0 | Oct 2007 → Apr 2008 | +| 109 days | 1.5.0 → 1.6.0 | Oct 2008 → Feb 2009 | +| 106 days | 1.3.0 → 1.4.0 | Apr 2008 → Jul 2008 | +| 105 days | 2.4.0 → 2.5.0 | Jul 2010 → Oct 2010 | + +Every gap longer than 100 days occurred **before 2011**, when the project had fewer than 20 +contributors and was maintaining a single release line. + +**Since 2015**, the largest gap between any two releases is **80 days** — during the Camel 3.0 +preparation in summer 2019. Since 2021, the maximum gap has been **50 days**. + +## 16-year release streak + +To put the cadence in perspective, here is the unbroken streak of years with 10+ releases: + +2011 → 2012 → 2013 → 2014 → 2015 → 2016 → 2017 → 2018 → 2019 → 2020 → 2021 → 2022 → 2023 → 2024 → 2025 → 2026 + +**16 consecutive years.** During this streak, the project went through: + +- The Camel **2.x** era (2011–2019): 25 minor releases, each with multiple patch releases +- The Camel **3.x** era (2019–2023): major migration to Jakarta EE, Java 11+, modular architecture +- The Camel **4.x** era (2023–present): Java 17+, virtual threads, 50+ new AI components + +Through every major transition, older release lines continued receiving patch releases. +Users were never forced into a rushed upgrade — the prior version kept getting fixes while +they planned their migration. + +## The community behind the commits + +**81,234 commits** don't happen by accident. Here is how the contributor base has grown: + +| Year | Commits | Contributors | Year | Commits | Contributors | +|------|---------|-------------|------|---------|-------------| +| 2007 | 1,173 | 7 | 2017 | 4,439 | 200 | +| 2008 | 1,954 | 12 | 2018 | 3,602 | 184 | +| 2009 | 2,728 | 14 | 2019 | 6,734 | 218 | +| 2010 | 2,484 | 18 | 2020 | 8,299 | 265 | +| 2011 | 2,449 | 26 | 2021 | 6,314 | 229 | +| 2012 | 2,381 | 24 | 2022 | 6,186 | 212 | +| 2013 | 2,500 | 50 | 2023 | 6,106 | 195 | +| 2014 | 2,759 | 91 | 2024 | 5,484 | 152 | +| 2015 | 3,640 | 136 | 2025 | 4,457 | 144 | +| 2016 | 4,332 | 192 | 2026* | 3,213 | 91 | + +The peak year was **2020 with 8,299 commits from 265 contributors**. That's the Camel 3.x +stabilization period — the community responding to its largest-ever migration with its +largest-ever effort. + +Even after the peak, the project has sustained **4,000–6,000 commits per year**. The 2026 pace +(3,213 in ~5 months) projects to roughly 7,400 for the full year — a resurgence driven by AI +integration, the new TUI developer tools, and continued platform expansion. + +## Weekends and holidays? Still shipping. + +Open-source sustainability isn't just about volume — it's about consistency. Does the project +go dark on weekends? Over the holidays? + +- **11.3% of all commits** (9,210) are on weekends +- **Every December** since 2015 has seen 160–500+ commits +- **Every Christmas week** (Dec 24–31) since 2015 has had commits — from 5 to 109 + +This doesn't mean maintainers are expected to work holidays. It means the contributor base is +global and diverse enough that someone, somewhere, is always working on Camel. + +## What "always on" means for your organization + +When you choose a dependency for production systems, you're not just evaluating today's features. +You're betting on the project's future. Here is what 19 years of data tells you about Apache Camel: + +**It won't disappear.** 232 consecutive months of activity. The project has survived every +technology shift — SOA, microservices, cloud-native, serverless, AI — by adapting, not by starting over. + +**Fixes ship fast.** A new release every 15 days means your critical patch isn't sitting in +a queue waiting for a quarterly release cycle. + +**Major transitions don't break you.** Through three major version bumps, the prior version +line kept receiving patch releases. No "upgrade now or get nothing." + +**The community is broad enough to sustain itself.** 1,100+ contributors over 19 years. +No single point of failure. + +**The governance works.** The Apache Software Foundation's release process — requiring community +votes, license compliance, and reproducible builds — adds overhead. But 272 successful releases +prove that overhead pays for itself in reliability. + +## The data is public + +Every number in this post is verifiable: + +- [GitHub repository](https://github.com/apache/camel) — 81,234 commits, full history since 2007 +- [Maven Central](https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/camel/camel-core/) — 272 GA releases with publish dates +- [Apache Camel JIRA](https://issues.apache.org/jira/projects/CAMEL) — issue tracking since day one
