This is Too Big To Fork https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6810259 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6810259 at work. Any legally free-slash-open-source so

This is Too Big To Fork https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6810259 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6810259 at work. Any legally free-slash-open-source software project which is so complex that only a few big actors have the will and ability to make and maintain a fork is de facto under the shared proprietary control of those big actors. (The same goes for software where control of the installed base means de facto control over any changes to widely-used interfaces.) "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." The Linux 'ecosystem' is only unusual in that (as it seems) there's exactly one big actor left standing by now.