Presumably the choice was to either open-source Maxima or stop development entirely and let it fall into obscurity. And anyway, having a(nother) open-source sy

Presumably the choice was to either open-source Maxima or stop development entirely and let it fall into obscurity. And anyway, having a(nother) open-source symbolic mathematical program is better than not having it, even if it is substandard compared to the commercial offerings.