LibreNMS is a fork of Observium. The [move to community and paid
versions][1] is not the reason for the fork. The reason is that our
priorities and values differ from those of the Observium development
team. We like Observium, but we want a community-based project with
IT professionals who share our values. For more information about our
community, read [README.md][2] and the references in that file.

LibreNMS is a fork of [the last GPL-licensed version of Observium][3].

Dan Brown, one of our users, wrote a [migration script][10]. This
script moves your Observium install to LibreNMS. It also moves the
install from one CPU architecture to another.

LibreNMS differs from Observium in these ways:

- Our community is inclusive. Every question is welcome, and you can ask
  for features that are not on the roadmap. To request a feature, add or
  comment on the relevant issue in our [community forum][9].
- The community drives the development decisions. We want to make
  software that meets the needs of its users.
- We have no plans for a paid version. We do not expect this to change.
- We have no current plans for paid support. We can add paid support
  later if enough people want it.
- We use git for version control and GitHub for hosting. Forked and
  private versions are therefore easy to create.

Use Observium instead of LibreNMS for these reasons:

- You have a financial investment in Observium, and community
  contributions are not important to you.
- You do not like the [GNU General Public License, version 3][5] or the
  [philosophy of free software and copyleft][6].

Use LibreNMS instead of Observium for these reasons:

- You want to work with others on the project, and you know that [your
  investment of time and effort is not wasted][7].
- You want to add and test features that the Observium developers do not
  make a priority. For more information, read [CONTRIBUTING][8].
- You want the additional features of LibreNMS.

[1]: http://postman.memetic.org/pipermail/observium/2013-October/003915.html
"Observium edition split announcement"
[2]: https://github.com/librenms/librenms/blob/master/README.md
"LibreNMS README"
[3]: http://fisheye.observium.org/rdiff/Observium?csid=3251&u&N
"Link to Observium license change"
[5]: https://github.com/librenms/librenms/blob/master/LICENSE.txt
"LibreNMS copy of GPL v3"
[6]: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
"Free Software Foundation - what is free software?"
[7]: https://www.libertysys.com.au/2011/03/observium-and-gpl-misconceptions/
"Paul's blog on what the GPL offers users"
[8]: ../Developing/Getting-Started.md
"Contribution guidelines"
[9]: https://community.librenms.org
"LibreNMS issue database at GitHub"
[10]: ../Installation/Migrating-from-Observium.md
"Migrating from Observium to LibreNMS"
