Guides/Concept
Mortalware: software with a written expiry on secrecy
Mortalware is software that promises, in its licence, to become open source on a fixed date. It is the opposite of software that keeps you locked in forever — it is a tool that outlives the company that sold it.
The promise, in one line
Elba is mortalware. You buy it once, the price drops every year, and on 1 January 2030 the entire source becomes MIT-licensed. If we vanish, the tool still works, and the code becomes yours to fork.
Mortalware is a design choice, not a marketing angle. It changes what the company is allowed to do with your loyalty.
Why this beats ‘trust us’
Every proprietary tool asks you to trust the vendor's future goodwill. Mortalware writes that goodwill into the licence and gives it a date. You can plan around it.
Questions people actually ask
- Is mortalware the same as open source?
- Not yet. Today Elba's source is visible inside the HTML file but not freely re-licensable. On 1 January 2030 it becomes MIT — free to fork, ship, and modify.
- What if you go bankrupt before 2030?
- The 2030 open-source date is in the licence you already own. Your copy keeps working; the source is inside it.
- Does the price really keep falling?
- Yes: €49 in 2026, €39 in 2027, €29 in 2028, €19 in 2029, free in 2030.
Take the island
Elba is one HTML file. It runs locally in a Chromium browser, seals a folder with AES-256-GCM, never phones home, and becomes open source on 1 January 2030.
- €49MMXXVI· now ·
- €39MMXXVII2027
- €29MMXXVIII2028
- €19MMXXIX2029
- FreeMMXXX2030
the price falls each year · free to all 1 jan 2030
pay once · no account · nothing leavesRelated guides
- What is mortalware? Software that dies into the commons
Mortalware is software with a release date — a scheduled transition from paid to free-and-open. Elba's mortalware plan explained.
- Software that becomes free over time (and why that's the point)
A short case for software with a scheduled, declining price that reaches zero. Elba's price falls every year until it's free in 2030.
- Declining-price software: paying less the longer you wait
A declining-price software model lowers price on a schedule until the tool is free. Elba uses it to make patience a legitimate purchase strategy.