[dirkriehle]

> So close to getting it right... Consider the countercase, where the company says up front that the product is only open source temporarily. Would anyone use them? Maybe, but they'd have a way harder time getting any buy-in.

You cannot retroactively remove the open source license, so what the vendor is doing is to stop supporting and developing the open source version. If the software is relevant then, as we can see, those who can still exploit it for commercial purposes (hyperscalers and distributors) are likely to come in, fork it, and pay for its continuation.