I see you confuse being available (as in "I kept a copy around") with being alive and actively developed.
I see you confuse source being available with being alive and actively developed. Sure, in theory, with source available its possible that someone pick it up and keep it alive. But often you either need a critical mass for that. MySQL may go on forever, but I can walk through the GitHub or SourceForge cemetery to find many dead bodies that will likely never be resurrected.
BTW, for many companies, you can often get the code in escrow. So if they discontinue or stop supporting the product, you get the source code.
> I can walk through the GitHub or SourceForge cemetery to find many dead bodies that will likely never be resurrected.
That's not the point - they won't be resurrected because nobody uses them anymore.
> BTW, for many companies, you can often get the code in escrow.
On one side you have a mechanism (open-source) that allows anyone interested to pool resources to maintain software after its previous maintainers abandon it. On the other, you see a mechanism under which you can, sometimes, get code that may or may not have been carefully maintained and may or may not have horrendous bugs you'll only become aware when you actually execute the contractual clause that allows you to get the source.
So, can we get the source for Windows 95? It's discontinued, right?
I see you confuse source being available with being alive and actively developed. Sure, in theory, with source available its possible that someone pick it up and keep it alive. But often you either need a critical mass for that. MySQL may go on forever, but I can walk through the GitHub or SourceForge cemetery to find many dead bodies that will likely never be resurrected.
BTW, for many companies, you can often get the code in escrow. So if they discontinue or stop supporting the product, you get the source code.