> Projects can survive with little or no commercial incentive because they're often developed by the users who themselves benefit from these projects. That's t

> Projects can survive with little or no commercial incentive because they're often developed by the users who themselves benefit from these projects. That's true, but I want to point out a different dynamic, which is very important as well: Projects can survive with multiple commercial contributors all active in it at once, and remain useful and not locked down due to a combination of copyleft licensing and companies being willing to share work if it benefits them. The Linux kernel is a prime example of this. > Evolution of GNOME is a great example of this. There are now many flavors of GNOME all catering to different workflows, and users don't have to compromise their preferred way of doing things to chase how GNOME is evolving. Zooming out, any user of an OS which uses X for its GUI can choose from a huge number of different window managers without someone coming along and deleting the ones "nobody uses" in the name of "streamlining the offering" or whatever "marketing synergy" or "confluent paradigm" is in vogue this month.