Why did Adobe open source Magento?
Why did Adobe open source Magento?
...despite the fact that, for example, Flash was proprietary and they, especially now, provide all their products by subscription?
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They didn’t, the community edition existed before Adobes purchase.
Okay, but why then do they continue to support Magento (Community Edition) as open source?
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.
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.
Magento Community Edition is always free, but AWS is not ;(
why then do they continue
It was already open when they acquired it, so the question should rather be: why wouldn't they?
If they didn't want to do it, then they would not have acquired it in the first place.