Bitwarden clarifies open source commitment amid user concerns

Bitwarden has sought to calm user backlash in the wake of source code changes that had raised concerns among users.

Phoronix readers recently flagged concerns about the company’s apparent shift away from an open source model. The password manager platform has traditionally operated on a ‘freemium’ model, providing some code as open source.

But a pull request earlier in October 2024 raised eyebrows due to the fact the Bitwarden client introduced a “bitwarden/sdk-internal” dependence to the desktop client.

Bitwarden changes

The firm’s license statement noted: “You may not use this SDK to develop applications for use with software other than Bitwarden (including non-compatible implementations of Bitwarden) or to develop another SDK.”

This statement in particular prompted speculation that the move could mean the Bitwarden client would no longer be freely available to users, with a GitHub issue further fueling speculation over the rumored move.

It looks like this is part of a deliberate campaign by Bitwarden to fully transition Bitwarden to proprietary software, despite consistently advertising it as open source, without informing customers about this change,” one user wrote.

“For wherever the opinion of one user is worth, I’ve switched away from Bitwarden due to this.”

While initial concerns were raised, Bitwarden has since clarified the issue. In a comment on GitHub, Bitwarden founder and CTO Kyle Spearrin sought to calm user concerns, commenting this was the result of a ‘packaging bug’.

Spearrin confirmed that Bitwarden has “made some adjustments” to how the SDK code is organized and packaged. This will allow users to continue building and running…