But on the other hand, every app is just as free to be disregarded by a community of developers even if there is still lots of end users who need it. Or for the software to never reach the level required by intense professional use. Or a understaffed and underfunded community that provides a critical but unsexy part of the infrastructure coughheartbleedcough.
this is true, but if you are going enterprise-grade you at least will sign an x-years support contract. If there are lots of end users for desktop software then it should in theory be profitable for a company to keep making it, rather than being dependent on volunteers to stay interested.
>If there are lots of end users for desktop software then it should in theory be profitable for a company to keep making it,
I've been bitten this way too. It was a hardware/software product, small company made a neat little USB DAQ that became very popular. Bigger entrenched player bought the company and discontinued the line. Shortly after that they released their own product based on the ones they discontinued, but now it requires a much more expensive software package. Just because a commercial product is profitable does not guarantee its longevity.
