Frequently Asked Questions
What is Prism Launcher?
For some more insight, please refer to: Moving on
Prism, both the project, and the community surrounding it, descends directly from PolyMC, which was forked from the MultiMC project in late 2021.
The original fork was primarily a result of continuing disagreements between a portion of the community, and MultiMC's lead maintainer, mainly surrounding the topics of 3rd party packaging and re-distribution. Many users of the time, especially across Linux, and other Unix-like platforms, were left dissatisfied by MultiMC's policy of restricting self-built packages, by not allowing the launcher to build with the necessary API keys for the successful authentication of Microsoft Accounts.
What happened to PolyMC? Why is there a new fork?
TL;DR
Prism Launcher was forked from PolyMC due to specific commits & executive decisions made by a maliciously inclined individual.
What Happened?
Prism Launcher was forked from PolyMC due to a sequence of actions by Lenny McLennington on the 17th of October, 2022. Lenny made several politically charged changes to the PolyMC GitHub repository and organization to remove those supporting "left-wing ideologies". In a commit, Lenny removed the PolyMC Code of Conduct, which outlined and prohibited discrimination against the LGBTQIA+ community and subsequently removed all maintainers. The commit and subsequent mass purge of maintainers were done without prior warning or discussion with the rest of the PolyMC team; the incident can be considered a hostile takeover.
Development of Prism Launcher requires community members & contributors to adhere to our Code of Conduct. We disagree with Lenny's actions and have created Prism Launcher to prevent any further politically inspired damage. Locking maintainers out of a project sets an unfavourable precedent and does not ensure that the PolyMC project will remain in good hands. We sincerely hope that you enjoy using Prism Launcher as we strive to deliver a consistent experience to our users.
Should I use Prism Launcher? Is PolyMC safe to use?
We cannot guarantee that new changes to PolyMC will be non-malicious, and we advise that you migrate to Prism Launcher instead of continuing to risk using PolyMC. It is up to you whether you wish to continue using PolyMC. Prism Launcher's Code of Conduct assures development will always occur in a fair manner that does not involve political motivation.
What does this mean for the future?
Prism Launcher will continue to have the same functionality as PolyMC did before this malicious commit, and we will continue to add features from there. All contributors who were removed from the project have begun developing Prism Launcher. As an end-user, switching to Prism Launcher will manifest as a change in logo & name for the time being.
Prism Launcher will continue to be accessible to everyone on all platforms, so no one is left behind. We do this by officially maintaining packages across a wide range of operating systems such as Windows, macOS, and both native and Flatpak and AppImage releases on Linux. And, where there are gaps in official distribution, 3rd party builds will always welcome in our community.
Furthermore, while the MultiMC project is stated to focus on "predictability" without seeking to incorporate any "flashy features", Prism will continue to do the complete opposite, with many new and exciting features already on the horizon.