Why Maxim Dounin Forked Nginx into FreeNginx to Escape Corporate Control

Russian developer Maxim Dounin recently announced a new branch of the Nginx web server and caching proxy called FreeNginx, aiming to free the project from the control of its owner, F5 Networks.

F5 acquired the Russian‑originated Nginx in 2019 for $670 million.

Following the disclosure of CVE‑2024‑24989, an HTTP/3 vulnerability, F5 released a security update that core developers disagreed with, prompting Dounin to create the FreeNginx fork.

freenginx.org’s goal is to make Nginx development free from arbitrary corporate actions.

Visit: https://www.freenginx.org

Maxim Dounin is one of the earliest and still most active programmers of the open‑source Nginx project and was among the first employees of Nginx, Inc.

He explained, “F5 forced developers to release a security version for experimental HTTP/3 code, whereas the issues should have been treated as ordinary bugs under existing project policies, requiring consensus from all developers. F5 ignored project policy and the stance of joint developers, without any discussion.”

Nginx has become one of the most prominent Russian‑origin software projects in recent years, experiencing rapid growth after 2013 and attracting substantial investment.

The acquisition by F5 was not smooth. Shortly after the purchase, Rambler claimed ownership of the code, leading to a raid on the Moscow office. In early 2022, F5 closed the Moscow office in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

This led to an earlier fork of the Nginx codebase called Angie ( https://angie.software/en/ ), which remains open source but is owned by the Russian supplier Web Server ( https://wbsrv.ru/ ).

Web Server co‑founder Valentin Bartenev said, “Since Nginx’s founding in 2011, many experienced engineers have lost their jobs and are dissatisfied with the situation, fearing for Nginx’s future after investing so much time and effort. They decided to fork Nginx and start a new company to continue development beyond the original vision.”

When asked why Dounin created a separate fork instead of collaborating with Angie, he replied, “Angie faces the same problem as F5‑operated Nginx: it is run by a profit‑driven entity. Even if it works well now, unexpected changes could occur, as happened with F5.”

Bartenev wishes Dounin good luck and notes that Web Server has provided upstream patches for the HTTP/3 issue.

The outbreak of the Ukraine war has impacted Russian Linux suppliers, limiting Russian developers’ ability to contribute code. Although F5 claims to remain committed to successful open‑source projects that require a large, diverse contributor community, geopolitics has already hindered international developer collaboration.

Edited by: 万能的大雄

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