Meanwhile Solidworks, MATLAB, Mathematica and the like watched it happen and made sure they got their mindshare and user base ready with scads of educational of

Meanwhile Solidworks, MATLAB, Mathematica and the like watched it happen and made sure they got their mindshare and user base ready with scads of educational offers and giveaways to make sure that's what everyone knew and had used. No need to mess about for hours with a half-baked FOSS mess when all you need is an academic email for a license. Which then keeps the mess, well, a mess, due to lack of the network effects.