Thanks Russell for starting this thread, and others for adding their perspectives!
I'm also deeply proud of the community for how far the project has come, and excited to see the ongoing growth in momentum and reach even as the elements of "fit and finish" fall into place in terms of manageability/modularity, packaging, and release processes. I also agree that the existence of both technical and procedural disagreements/conflicts that have taken deliberate effort to work through is actually a good sign of project maturity and reflects the diversity of viewpoints in a community that is passionate about its work. The forming/storming/norming/performing stages of community dynamics aren't only a fixed-in-time milestone, but an ongoing process as the community grows and evolves. In this respect, the ability to keep moving forward in the face of such disagreements has been a testament to the adaptability and resilience of the community. Overall I'm +1 to graduation. Cheers, Dennis On Tue, Jan 20, 2026 at 6:44 PM Kent Yao <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Russell, > > Thank you for starting this discussion. The Apache Polaris project has > made incredible strides with releases and community growth. > > I am fully support move Polaris toward graduation. > > Best regards, > Kent > ________________________________ > From: Dmitri Bourlatchkov <[email protected]> > Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2026 11:43 PM > To: [email protected] <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [DISCUSS] Apache Polaris - Moving towards Graduation > > Hi Russell, > > Thanks for starting this discussion. I believe it is very timely. The > project has indeed come a long way since the start of incubation, and in > addition to metrics, I personally see a lot of engagement from the users, > quite a few of whom become active contributors over time. > > As to the disagreements in the community, I do believe that having > different opinions in the project is in fact good for the health of the > community, and I believe that in most cases differing opinions actually > fuel constructive discussions and promote project evolution. The cases > where discussions got stuck or overheated are exceptional, IMHO. Moreover, > I think we're at a stage when the community as a whole is capable of making > progress on all complex discussions for the benefit of the project and all > individuals involved. > > I'm looking forward to seeing Polaris graduate. > > Cheers, > Dmitri. > > On Sat, Jan 17, 2026 at 3:17 PM Russell Spitzer <[email protected] > > > wrote: > > > Hi y’all, > > > > It’s exciting to see how far the Apache Polaris (Incubating) project has > > come in just over a year, and I think it’s time that we start considering > > whether the podling is ready to graduate to a full-fledged Apache > project. > > > > We’ve seen production releases, new persistence backends, OPA support, > and > > so much more. Most importantly, this work has been done with public > design > > and discussion, following the Apache model for community development. > > Github Issues and PR review happen in an open and vendor-neutral manner. > > There are many active committers and PPMC members from different > > organizations working together and releasing quality software. I’ve seen > > solid work done to protect the Apache Brand and ensure licensing is > > appropriate, as well as some great handling of public events. Even as a > > young project, Polaris has already hosted many successful meetups and has > > been the subject of talks at a variety of conferences. We also have a > > lively dev-list and lots of one-on-one discussions happening on the Slack > > channel. In many cases, I think that the Apache Polaris Community is > > functioning exactly how a top-level Apache project should > > < > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/INCUBATOR/Graduation+Criteria > > >. > > > > > > For those interested in the statistics > > > > > > - > > > > Apache Polaris has had 6 Releases (0.9, 1.0.0, 1.0.1, 1.1.0, 1.2.0, > > 1.3.0) > > - > > > > Our github is at 1.8k stars with 357 Forks > > - > > > > We have closed 2819 PRs > > - > > > > There are have been ~100 Contributors to the project > > - > > > > The PPMC has 13 Members (6 elected during incubation period) and there > > are 8 other committers (5 elected during incubation period) > > - > > > > Representatives from Dremio, Snowflake, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, And > > more! > > > > > > > > That said, I do still have some concerns about other areas of community > > development. While I think we are having lots of great conversations > about > > the future of the project, we still seem to have difficult moments where > > communication appears to be breaking down, and people are becoming a bit > > more heated. We also seem to be lacking a bit of mutual trust and > respect. > > I want to make sure that the Polaris community is a welcoming one, where > > engineers all respect each other’s contributions and, most importantly, > act > > in good faith. We’ve seen some instances where PRs may be perceived as > > merged prematurely, or that there are double standards for what > constitutes > > a “blocker” on a PR. I want to know if others in the community feel this > > way, and more importantly, if there are any constructive ideas on how to > > help us get along and make the community as welcoming as possible. Please > > do not take this lightly; I know it can be easy to just write off other > > engineers as a “problem,” but that kind of attitude won’t help this > project > > move forward. I would encourage everyone to think about how they > personally > > can contribute to a better environment. If I’m alone in this sentiment, > > feel free to ignore me, but I think it’s always a good exercise to think > > about how I interact with others to make them feel as welcome as > possible. > > > > I don’t mean to be all gloomy on this matter, though; I think some things > > have been moving in the right direction. A great example is some of the > > discussions we’ve seen lately on the mailing list. Although we had some > > disagreements on a PR, there is now a pretty constructive dialogue > > happening where I do feel like all of the community members are trying to > > find common ground and listen to each other’s viewpoints without personal > > judgment. This shows me that we are still having constructive engagements > > even when there was prior disagreement. I wasn’t able to attend the > recent > > sprint planning meeting, but from what I have heard, that’s another > > instance where it feels like folks came away from that meeting with a bit > > more camaraderie than they had going in. > > > > All in all, I want what’s best for the community. I hope that by bringing > > up graduation, and bringing some of my concerns into the public light, > > we’ll be able to make progress and graduate the project. I want to know > > everyone else’s feelings on the general maturity of the project, whether > > they think it’s appropriate to graduate, and whether they have any other > > suggestions for paths forward to make Polaris even better in the future. > > > > Thanks for your time, > > > > Russell Spitzer > > > > Resources: > > > > https://incubator.apache.org/guides/graduation.html > > > > > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/INCUBATOR/Graduation+Criteria > > > > > > > https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qBIxClspQA--uQB0MS3LQO-uEDjdXtbqMPSRNbgeKdk/edit?usp=sharing > > >
