Rune, an IDE for Linux and macOS, has transitioned to an open-source license under GPLv3, allowing for community contributions and offering a revenue-sharing program for developers. Creator Ernest Romero Climent aims to avoid a common pitfall in open source where companies relicense projects after community build-up.
The relicensing involved maintaining most of the project’s commit history, dating back to 2017, with minor gaps. Rune is built on Go, and the development team demonstrated its terminal performance is competitive with Alacritty, Ghostty, and Kitty through vtebench runs. Currently supporting Go and Python, Rune is expanding language support with Rust and Zig in beta, and is soliciting developers to steward additional languages.
While the IDE is free to use, paid plans are available for access to the P2P Rune Network, premium support, and enterprise-level features. The GPLv3 license allows contributors to retain copyright of their submissions, with Unstable Build LLC taking no special rights to relicense their work. The project has eliminated the requirement for contributors to sign a CLA.
Rune’s creator, Ernest Romero Climent, expressed dissatisfaction with instances where companies leverage open-source contributions and then change licensing terms. To address this, Rune is implementing an opt-in credits program where accepted contributions earn credits, which are then used to distribute a portion of eligible service revenue to contributors. A public ledger will track revenue, deductions, credit awards, and payout calculations. Participation in the program is optional; developers can still submit patches without joining.
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