Anaconda

Details

The project is provided under non-free Terms of Service, which require for-profit organizations of more than 200 employees to purchase a paid license, forbid people under 13 years old from using it, and do not allow redistribution, modification or reverse-engineering. Until 2020, it seemed to follow an open-core model, with the app being provided under a 3-clause BSD license, and a paid version named “Anaconda Enterprise” being provided under a non-free EULA.

In April 2020, a new rule was introduced requiring large-scale commercial users to either buy a commercial license or download packages from other repositories than those provided by Anaconda. This change, which was based on the claim that heavy unpaid commercial usage was making the service financially unsustainable, was framed as part of “a mission of stewardship and support of the open source data science community”, and came together with the promise of reinvesting the profit on open-source projects. Following this change, the Anaconda app (which was renamed “Anaconda Individual Edition” to reflect its new intended use) remained available under a 3-clause BSD license, but started including proprietary libraries in the form of binary blobs.

From September 2022 to March 2024, the Anaconda app (which was renamed again to “Anaconda distribution”) was distributed under a modified version of the 3-clause BSD license, misleadingly labeled as “the 3-clause BSD License” without any mention of the modifications until later in the license text. This license had two additional clauses that forbid redistribution for commercial purposes and commercial usage of the package repository provided by Anaconda.

A new update was made to the Terms of Service in March 2024, making Anaconda fully proprietary.

The source code of Anaconda does not appear to be publicly available. Anaconda appears to own three GitHub organizations (anaconda-distribution, anaconda and ContinuumIO), but these seem to contain only plugins, libraries, example code used for tutorials or demos and the Anaconda issue tracker.

The project strongly alludes to the notion of being open-source on its website homepage, with phrases such as “Simplify, safeguard, and accelerate AI value with open source” and “We believe open source is the cornerstone of the next era of AI innovation”. The website also has a dedicated “Open Source” page, where Anaconda is advertised alongside open-source Python packages.

Anaconda is managed by Anaconda Inc., and appears to be funded by selling paid licenses for their software, which provide features such as larger cloud storage and enhanced security.