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title: Siemens Abruptly Takes Down OpenRadioss, But a Fork is...
description: Siemens abruptly deleted the OpenRadioss GitHub repository at the start of the month, removing public access to the open-source finite element solver...
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og:description: Siemens abruptly deleted the OpenRadioss GitHub repository at the start of the month, removing public access to the open-source finite element solver...
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# Siemens Abruptly Takes Down OpenRadioss, But a Fork is Already Live

**[It's Foss](https://daily.dev/sources/itsfoss)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

Siemens abruptly deleted the OpenRadioss GitHub repository at the start of the month, removing public access to the open-source finite element solver (originally Altair's Radioss, released as open source in 2022) and redirecting users to its commercial Simcenter Radioss product. Because the code was licensed under AGPLv3, Rocky Linux co-founder Brian Clemens was able to launch a fork called OpenCourant within days, preserving the full commit history and already shipping Linux and Windows x86_64 builds. The fork even recovered a previously undistributed closed-source hm_reader binary from a community member and is seeking ARM64 support contributors and past OpenRadioss contributors.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://feed.itsfoss.com/link/24361/17489673/siemens-openradioss-fork>

## Questions this post answers

### Why did Siemens take down the OpenRadioss GitHub repository?

Siemens quietly deleted the OpenRadioss repository at the start of the month, more than a year after acquiring Altair, redirecting users to its commercial Simcenter Radioss transition page. The GitHub organization page remains, but the actual repository contents were removed without prior notice, unlike a typical read-only archive.

_Teams relying on open finite element tools can follow forks and migrations like this one on daily.dev._

### Is there a working fork of OpenRadioss available after Siemens removed it?

Yes, a fork called OpenCourant was created by Brian Clemens, co-founder of Rocky Linux, within days of the takedown. It preserves the full OpenRadioss commit history, ships under the same GNU AGPLv3 license, and already distributes Linux and Windows x86_64 packages, with ARM64 support in progress.

_Developers tracking open-source project continuity can watch fork activity like OpenCourant on daily.dev._

### What legal right allowed developers to fork OpenRadioss after Siemens deleted the repository?

The GNU AGPLv3 license applying to every commit of OpenRadioss gave anyone the legal right to fork, distribute, and build on the code, even though Siemens was within its rights to take down the original repository. This license protection is what allowed the OpenCourant fork to launch almost immediately after the deletion.

_Anyone weighing open-source license choices for long-term project resilience can follow cases like this on daily.dev._

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---

Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source)

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