Metaphor I often see in FOSS. You are this hobby painter sitting every morning on Monmartre square in Paris, painting. It attracts people's eyes. They love your work and you become a sensation, going viral. Instagram influencers from around the world just need you in their picture, they say. You just shrug and paint. One day you got bored of Monmartre. Of pleasing the crowds. You want rest, a spot in nature to paint in peace. When the crowd learns, an angry oproar bursts out, and people demand you stick to your familiar spot, or else.
If the painter doesn't enjoy painting in public, then they should've picked a quiet spot in nature in the first place.
And yet, most people who do decide to share their work in public, directly or indirectly reap the rewards of it. They get exposure and recognition, which in turn opens many doors. I'm not saying that exposure alone puts food on the table, but it's certainly not entirely negative. Many people would envy to be in that position.
Your analogy is akin to any public figure enjoying their work, but not enjoying the attention. That certainly happens, but the attention, and all its negative aspects, comes with the territory. That attention might even be partly responsible for getting them to where they are. People in such line of work must learn to live with their choices. Not be surprised when their audience has certain demands and expectations, which may or may not be within reason.
And that's fine too. Someone else may or may not continue their work for the benefit of the community. They can be honest about it, and most people will be understanding and thankful for their work.
But that is not what happened in the case of MinIO, and many other projects. They deliberately removed features from the software, and made it more difficult to use. They prioritized working on their commercial product, and used the "community edition" as a marketing funnel for it. This is what I'm objecting to.
In any case, I've made my point clear, and don't like repeating myself. Cheers!
>Someone else may or may not continue their work for the benefit of the community.
Someone still can. They can't revoke the AGPL license of previous versions.
>They prioritized working on their commercial product
It's a company, not a non-profit. What else would you expect them to do?
I'm less understanding when a VC backed company does things like this, but many times its just a matter of "we were trying to make money by doing X. X is no longer working, so we're moving to Y".
I've also seen hostile mobs form when very small companies or individuals decide to start charging for things they used to give away for free, so it's not just that they are a VC backed company here.
