After the community renamed to Jenkins in a 214-14 vote, Oracle kept the Hudson name but lost everything else. Donated to Eclipse, declared obsolete 2017, website shut down 2020.
Hudson/Jenkins is a Java-based continuous integration server with a plugin architecture supporting over 1,800 plugins. It pioneered the modern CI/CD pipeline concept and remains one of the most widely deployed automation servers in enterprise software development.
Hudson was created by Kohsuke Kawaguchi at Sun Microsystems in 2004 as a continuous integration server. It quickly became the most popular CI tool in the Java ecosystem, beloved by developers for its plugin architecture and ease of use. When Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems in 2010, trouble began almost immediately.
Oracle attempted to assert control over the Hudson project infrastructure and, critically, claimed ownership of the 'Hudson' trademark. The community pushed back, and in January 2011, the developers held a vote to rename the project to 'Jenkins.' The vote passed overwhelmingly, and on January 29, 2011, the project was officially renamed. Kawaguchi — Hudson's creator — sided with Jenkins.
Oracle refused to accept the result, declaring that Jenkins was a fork and that Hudson would continue under Oracle's stewardship. This created a bizarre situation where both sides claimed to be the 'real' project. But the outcome was never in doubt: virtually every active developer followed Kawaguchi to Jenkins, taking the community, the plugins, and the momentum with them.
Oracle attempted to maintain Hudson for over a year before admitting defeat. In May 2012, Oracle proposed donating Hudson to the Eclipse Foundation, which formally received it by the end of that year. But by then, Jenkins had won so completely that Hudson at Eclipse was dead on arrival. No significant development occurred, and in February 2017, Hudson was officially declared obsolete. The hudson-ci.org website was shut down on January 31, 2020.
Hudson's death is the canonical example of a corporation losing a fork war by trying to control the name while losing the people. Oracle kept the trademark but lost everything that made it valuable.
Oracle acquisition of Sun leads to disputes over Hudson infrastructure and trademark
Jenkins name proposed as community rename of Hudson
Community votes overwhelmingly to rename to Jenkins
Oracle declares Hudson will continue as a separate project
Oracle proposes donating Hudson to Eclipse Foundation
Hudson declared obsolete at Eclipse
hudson-ci.org website shut down
“They clearly acknowledge that Oracle couldn't keep up with the Jenkins project.”
Hudson's death became the textbook example of how not to handle an open-source acquisition. Oracle's playbook of claiming trademarks while losing developers was repeated with OpenSolaris and OpenOffice, establishing a pattern that made 'Oracle acquires open-source project' a community alarm bell for years afterward.