The Bitnami Bait-and-Switch: Broadcom’s Move Highlights the Perils of Corporate Open Source

It finally happened. The other shoe dropped. When Broadcom acquired VMware, we all held our breath, waiting to see what parts of the ecosystem would be squeezed for profit. Now we have a clear answer: the free, convenient world of Bitnami images is one of the first casualties.

For years, Bitnami has been a godsend for developers, students, and small teams. It was the easy button for deploying open-source applications. Need a WordPress instance? A GitLab server? A Node.js environment? Just grab the pre-configured Bitnami image, and you were up and running in minutes. It was free, it was simple, and it worked. It was, for many, the perfect entry point into the open-source world.

And that was the point. It was a classic “freemium” model, but one that felt genuinely useful, not predatory. It lowered the barrier to entry, fostered learning, and let you build things without a budget. But now, Broadcom has decided the free ride is over. The extensive library of free images is gone, replaced by a much smaller, commercially-focused selection.

The Bait-and-Switch

Let’s call this what it is: a bait-and-switch. For years, a community was built around this convenient, free resource. We integrated it into our workflows, our tutorials, our personal projects. We came to rely on it. Now, the corporation that holds the keys has decided to monetize that reliance.

The message from Broadcom is clear: the “community” aspect of this open-source offering was only valuable as long as it served as a funnel for future enterprise customers. The moment the parent company needed to boost its bottom line, the “free for all” model was sacrificed.

This isn’t just about losing a convenient tool. It’s about the erosion of trust. It’s a stark reminder that “free” in the corporate open-source world often comes with an asterisk. The freedom to use, modify, and distribute is only guaranteed until it conflicts with a quarterly earnings report.

The Real Cost of “Alternatives”

The common refrain from corporate defenders will be, “But the software is still open source! You can just build it yourself!”

This argument is disingenuous and misses the entire point of why Bitnami was so popular. Yes, you can go and manually install and configure WordPress, MySQL, and PHP. You can spend hours, or even days, wrestling with dependencies, security settings, and configuration files. But Bitnami did that work for us. The value wasn’t just the software; it was the time and expertise packaged into a convenient, ready-to-run solution.

The “alternative” is a significant increase in labor and a higher barrier to entry. It’s a step backward for accessibility and a new headache for the very people who were drawn to the ecosystem in the first place.

A Sobering Lesson

This episode should serve as a sobering lesson for all of us who build on and with open-source tools. We need to ask critical questions about the projects we use:

• Who is the steward? Is it a community-driven foundation or a single for-profit company?
• What is the business model? Is the project sustainable on its own, or is it a “loss leader” for a larger corporate entity?
• What happens if the steward changes its mind? Is there a clear path for the community to fork the project and continue its development?

The Bitnami situation is a perfect example of the perils of corporate-controlled open source. It highlights the fundamental tension between the collaborative, community-oriented ethos of open source and the profit-driven motives of large corporations.

I’m not against corporations participating in open source. They contribute immense resources and talent. But we must remain vigilant and skeptical. When a single company holds all the cards, the game can change at any moment, and it’s rarely in the community’s favor.