…despite the fact that, for example, Flash was proprietary and they, especially now, provide all their products by subscription?

  • bugsmith@programming.dev
    23·
    11 months ago

    The same reason a lot of companies support a community edition. It means that people can use, learn and become experienced with the product without forking over a tonne of money.

    This results in a larger number of developers, add-ons and community surrounding the product.

    This makes it a more appealing product for companies looking to build a business using it.

    It’s the same reason you can use AWS for free, get some JetBrains products for free and often find community editions for similar products to Magento.

    • deweydecibel@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      11 months ago

      It also prevents competition.

      Locking down Magneto would have resulted in a fork that could grow to rival the product Adobe now owns. With a community edition, the community has less incentive to fork. You can still use the product, and surely that will never ever change, so why bother getting to work on a competing fork?

      Then years down the line, when no competition has come to exist, when the industry has grown dependent on the product, they can start strangling the community edition.