We've used Derby for years as a part of an open source project. It's
been great and we've been able to work around the few issues that have
arisen. We will likely continue to use it for the immediate future, even
once it is retired.
Thanks to everyone who has worked on this project over the years!
Emily
On 2025-09-22 10:26 a.m., Rick Hillegas wrote:
It has been almost two years since the Derby sub-project published a new
version. I myself have no interest in managing another Derby release.
Bryan is the only other active Derby committer. Bugs are reported
occasionally but they are never fixed. Mailing-list activity consists
almost entirely of spam rejects. No-one has volunteered to refresh the
Derby website with the new Apache logo.
I think that the time has come to retire Derby. As I understand it, this
means putting Derby into a read-only state:
o The Derby repository would become read-only.
o Distributions would be removed from the Download tab.
o The developer and user lists would be closed down. Mailing list
archives would still be browsable.
o A prominent banner would be added to the Derby website landing page,
stating that Derby was now retired and read-only.
o The Derby website, JIRA, and wiki would be placed in read-only mode.
Before calling a retirement vote, I would like to give the developer and
user communities an opportunity to discuss this change.
What are your thoughts?
-Rick
