It was only a matter of time before the rise of an LXD fork, and it appears that Incus is preparing to take the stage.
Some context to get you up to speed: Canonical took complete control of the LXD project, and that garnered mixed reactions.
Even the lead engineer of LXD, Stéphane Graber, announced that he had left Canonical to pursue a few pet projects after Canonical's public announcement. He also mentioned that he would occasionally contribute to LXD, provided he didn't need to sign Canonical's CLA.
But, as it turns out, something changed, and he decided to take a different approach.
What's Happening: A new fork of Canonical's LXD was spotted (via The Register), i.e., Incus, made by Aleksa Sarai of SUSE and supported by the lead engineer Graber.
Considering Aleksa Sarai as a long-time LXD packager for openSUSE, it is a good thing to witness.
While both Graber and Sarai announced the new fork, they were unsure if the fork would have enough contributors to kick start the development in the same way Canonical's LXD project undergoes.
And a few days later, the Linux Containers project announced that they would be taking the Incus project under their care. The new GitHub repo featuring the fork and all the community contributions.
So, yes, now, we have an active and promising fork of LXD, which could introduce things that would not depend on Canonical.
Hoping for the best! 🤩
Here's how it will work now: For starters, Incus will get access to the infrastructure previously made available to LXD. One of the main focuses of Incus would be to provide a “fully community-led alternative to Canonical's LXD”, and the other is to correct past mistakes made during LXD's development.
The initial set of maintainers for Incus will include Christian Brauner, Serge Hallyn, Stéphane Graber, Tycho Andersen, and Aleksa Sarai.
When to expect a release?
Not anytime soon! As mentioned in the announcement, a stable release of Incus is at least a few months away, and existing LXD users have been told to wait it out.
Until then, you can catch up on discussions regarding Incus on the official forum, or look at its new home at LinuxContainers' GitHub repo.
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