[mbesto]

> But if I want to use Atom I can fork it, or keep the source around. It doesn't go away from my environment until _I_ say it does.

This is technically true, but in 99% of the cases is not realistically true. Most developers who use said FOSS external dependency do not want to actively maintain it themselves.

[bmitc]

FOSS supporters always say this as if we live in a reality where knowledge and time are infinite. Yes, the licenses say you can legally do things, but they are hardly ever realistic.

[frazbin]

Well, you don't do the maintenance yourself, you get some bored person to do it-- the important thing is they're not on a payroll and the result isn't someone's IP. Right now this strategy probably seems insane, because we are all so well compensated that the opportunity cost of working on OSS for free is massive, but sometimes you get 'lucky' and a software downturn frees up some engineering hours for further pro bono work on OSS. Pretty sure that has happened several times already, might happen again soon.

[varajelle]

For the atom case, it seems some users are going to continue to maintain it: https://github.com/atom-community/atom/

[mekster]

Might be more interesting to follow the next editor the author is working on.

https://zed.dev/