OSU Open Source Lab Secures One-Year Lifeline, Shifts Focus to Long-Term Sustainability

The Oregon State University Open Source Lab (OSL), a long-standing infrastructure provider for major open source projects, has secured $250,000 in emergency funding, ensuring it can operate for at least another year. The successful campaign averts an immediate shutdown and enables the lab to focus on building a sustainable future. 

OSL supports infrastructure for major projects including Drupal, Debian, Apache, and Firefox, and has played a key role in providing hosting and mentoring for more than two decades.

“Thanks to your amazing support, our team is funded for the next year,” 

said OSL Director Lance Albertson in a May 9 update. 

“This is a huge relief and lets us focus on building a truly self-sustaining OSL.”

Infrastructure Move on the Horizon

OSL’s current data center, in service for more than 20 years, may soon be decommissioned due to changes within Oregon State University. The lab is actively seeking free or low-cost hosting space—between 13 and 20 racks—in the corridor between Eugene and Portland. A relocation to the State of Oregon’s data center remains a possibility but would incur significant new costs.

The lab is also pursuing hardware donations to replace aging equipment. Refurbished or recently cycled-out systems are welcomed, with Albertson noting that a recent donation from the Yocto Project and Intel had already led to noticeable performance gains.

“We don’t need brand-new gear,” he wrote. “Even hardware a few generations old can make a major difference.”

Financial Stability Remains a Priority

While the emergency funding secures short-term operations, the lab must now pivot toward a long-term financial model. Oregon State University has signaled that OSL must become financially self-sufficient, which requires consistent, recurring funding sources rather than one-time appeals.

OSL is seeking annual pledges, recurring donations, and corporate partnerships that can underwrite ongoing infrastructure costs and support its renowned student training program. Stable funding would enable the lab to invest in modern tooling, expand community services, and offer more robust learning experiences for future engineers.

“Getting this right means we can stop worrying about short-term funding and plan for the future,” Albertson wrote.

OSL’s Role in Open Source Remains Critical

Beyond infrastructure, the OSL remains a vital part of the global open source ecosystem. It provides hosting and services for more than 500 projects, including Drupal, Debian, Apache, and Gentoo. It also operates multi-architecture OpenStack clusters (POWER, ARM, and x86), a Ceph storage platform with S3 capabilities, GitLab CI runners, and managed environments for projects like PostmarketOS.

It continues to serve Drupal directly, hosting systems for pre-production environments, mail transport, and legacy infrastructure in transition.

“Yes, the OSL is absolutely still needed,” Albertson emphasized.

How to Support

OSL is calling on the wider open source and tech communities for help in two key areas:

• Infrastructure support: Leads on low-cost data center space or donations of refurbished hardware are urgently needed.
• Financial partnerships: Recurring contributions and corporate sponsorships are critical for the lab’s long-term stability.

Organizations or individuals interested in helping can reach out to [email protected] or visit osuosl.org for more information.