The open-source software development community that supports key projects like Mesa, Wayland, and X.Org is once again at a crossroads. X.Org / FreeDesktop.org, having overcome a cloud hosting crisis five years ago, now faces a new challenge: finding an infrastructure solution before April 30, 2025.
Half a decade ago, the organization lost its free credits on Google Cloud, which caused hosting and continuous integration (CI) testing costs to skyrocket. At that time, Equinix emerged as a savior, offering sponsorship and providing the necessary servers to keep FreeDesktop.org’s services running. However, this support will come to an end in April, leaving the community with little time to plan for a seamless transition.
A warning on the horizon
Visitors to FreeDesktop.org’s GitLab or similar platforms may have already noticed a message at the top of the page:
“Equinix is shutting down its operations with us on April 30, 2025. They have kindly supported us for nearly 5 years, but all good things come to an end. Given the timeline, it will be challenging to achieve a smooth transition of the cluster to another location (to be determined). Expect some service issues in the coming months and likely at least a full week of downtime to transfer GitLab to a different location. All help is welcome.”
This announcement underscores the urgency of finding a solution for a system that handles around 50 TB of bandwidthBandwidth is the maximum capability of data transfer. monthly and hosts projects critical to the open-source ecosystem.
Current infrastructure and challenges
Equinix has been providing six high-performance servers: three with AMD EPYC 7402P processors and three with Intel Xeon Silver 4214, plus another five servers for running CI tasks. This infrastructure has been essential for keeping services such as GitLab operational, which manages databases, Git repositories, and S3 storage, among others.
However, the transition will not be straightforward. Benjamin Tissoires, one of the administrators of FreeDesktop.org, has suggested that the organization pay directly for its servers and seek sponsors to cover the costs. This approach would avoid reliance on a single provider and reduce the risk of future crises.
Options on the table
Among the options being considered are:
- Externally managed databases to improve efficiency and reduce administrative overhead.
- External S3 storage that allows users to directly access data, eliminating the need for intermediaries.
- KubernetesKubernetes (commonly referred to in English as “K8s”) private to maintain security and separate control plane tasks from worker nodes.
- Protection against AI bots through services like Cloudflare or Fastly, which are overwhelming resources by crawling Git repositories.
Lessons learned
This is not the first time that FreeDesktop.org has faced an infrastructure crisis. In the past, the loss of sponsorships and free credits forced the community to migrate its services at record speed. This time, Tissoires has suggested that the organization take on the infrastructure costs directly and seek sponsorships to cover them. This approach would allow for greater long-term stability.
What’s next?
With only three months to find a solution, the X.Org / FreeDesktop.org community is working against the clock to secure the future of its services. The transition will not be without challenges, but past experience and the commitment of its members may be key to overcoming this new crisis.
The open-source world continues to demonstrate that, even in the face of adversity, collaboration and innovation can pave the way to sustainable solutions.