I don’t consider this to be giving up control; I use open source projects from corporations by choice, mostly due to their merits. This is a mutual thing. On t

I don’t consider this to be giving up control; I use open source projects from corporations by choice, mostly due to their merits. This is a mutual thing. On the other hand, having a big corp take over the direction of something I’m writing for fun to fit their needs is a totally different ball game. After all, many developers also use Windows or macOS, and that can have an impact, too. But for the most part, it’s inconsequential. The way I see it, open source is not different from freeware in this sort of way. If you release something out to the world under some set of terms, then you shouldn’t be surprised when people adhere to those terms. You also aren’t owed anything for being nice or giving people gifts. If you really care about getting a return on your investment, then I can only say that open source is a strategically shitty choice. Open source gives me the rare opportunity to work on stuff I actually care about, with other people who also happen to care about those things. Mutual benefit. For corporations that release software, it’s not really about autonomy, but it is still about mutual benefit; Facebook was even honest with this, mentioning that a reason for opening up React was to help make it more general and mature, and help flush out idiosyncrasies that plague the design.