Apache CouchDB project chairman Jan Lehnardt sent an e-mail to the project’s mailing list yesterday addressing concerns about the the open source NoSQL document database’s future.

Last week word spread that Canonical is discontinuing its use of CouchDB in its cloud storage service Ubuntu One. First, Lehnardt explains the situation and the CouchDB team’s side of the story:

In 2009 Canonical decided to base the data sync feature of their Ubuntu One project on Apache CouchDB. Its goal was to allow seamless synchronisation of personal data between different computers and devices and their
cloud hosting service. A use-case that seemed perfect for CouchDB at the time, and we consider that still to be the case.

Individuals from the CouchDB team have worked closely with the developers at Canonical to help making Ubuntu One a success. At some point in the past, these individuals developed patches to adapt CouchDB to certain Ubuntu One use cases. These patches diverged from the main CouchDB code base.

Over time, it became harder and harder to reconcile these changes with the main CouchDB code base, so fixing bugs and rolling out new features from more recent CouchDB release took a lot more time and energy.

At some point in the near past, we presume, Canonical decided to not pursue this any further. And we respect that decision and we wish them best with their development of their new U1DB, which is a database-agnostic API that takes after CouchDB’s API, but is tied closer to their particular feature set.

We’d like to thank Canonical for officially endorsing this part of the message.

When I started covering the story I contacted Couchbase, the company formed after Membase acquired CouchOne earlier this year, for comment. I expected it to be a simple story with a peppy quote from Couchbase downplaying the importance of this change and talking up the future of CouchDB. Instead the representative from Couchbase distanced the company from CouchDB saying “We’re not the CouchDB company and we never will be the CouchDB company” and “Couchbase has no business interest in CouchDB.”

I have mistakenly referred to CouchOne as the “sponsor company” of CouchDB, but Lehnardt points out in his e-mail that CouchDB “has no corporate sponsor.” As I pointed out in my previous article, CouchDB is an Apache project and will carry-on regardless of Couchbase’s support.

However, the question of commercial support is an important factor in the longterm viability of an open source project, and CouchOne historically had an important role in the development of CouchDB. CouchOne, originally called Couchio, was founded by CouchDB creator Damien Katz, along with contributors Lehnardt and J. Chris Anderson. All three continue to work for Couchbase. To hear that Couchbase is only interested in applying certain elements of CouchDB to the Membase project is a departure.

The good news, as I reported last week is that Cloudant remains firmly supportive of Apache CouchDB and it is still paying employees to develop the project. And Couchbase employees such as Lehnardt remain committed to the project as well, even though Couchbase as a company has no interest in the project. Lehnardt also notes that other companies, including Enki Multimedia and Iris Couch, employ CouchDB developers.

But the most important aspect of an open source project is its community, and Lehnardt says the community is “alive and kicking.” The establishment of CouchDB as an Apache project instead of the project of a single company, like CouchOne, is important and helps the project and community continue even as one of the core companies dedicated to its development has changed focus.