Scenario A (surprise library): this is partly why I explicitly said I'm only recommending this model for devtools, not libraries.
Scenario B (developer going away): shrug. I don't see this as a big issue. Products disappear all the time, people adapt. Look at Google shutting down major projects apparently on a whim.
Dev tools are often packaged up or depended on by other dev tools. Not to mention things like starter templates. Or maybe my definition of dev tools is too broad. Were you thinking like endpoint apps like VS Code or vim? (Although VS Code has been adapted for other uses too.)
I suppose it’s true that products disappear. We’ve had that happen to us or seen it happen to others with some vendors. Because they weren’t making enough money. Anyway, I guess in my mental model, if I decided I was tired of an OSS project I can just stop and someone else can keep it going if it’s important to them. But this is different. It is really a business model, not a community project.
I think if you're concerned about that first scenario, it's important to understand where your tool stands in the ecosystem. I also think it's perfectly acceptable that all those users will, in fact, need to pay for proprietary use. And we can build tools to make that easier.
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Scenario A (surprise library): this is partly why I explicitly said I'm only recommending this model for devtools, not libraries.
Scenario B (developer going away): shrug. I don't see this as a big issue. Products disappear all the time, people adapt. Look at Google shutting down major projects apparently on a whim.
Dev tools are often packaged up or depended on by other dev tools. Not to mention things like starter templates. Or maybe my definition of dev tools is too broad. Were you thinking like endpoint apps like VS Code or vim? (Although VS Code has been adapted for other uses too.)
I suppose it’s true that products disappear. We’ve had that happen to us or seen it happen to others with some vendors. Because they weren’t making enough money. Anyway, I guess in my mental model, if I decided I was tired of an OSS project I can just stop and someone else can keep it going if it’s important to them. But this is different. It is really a business model, not a community project.
I think if you're concerned about that first scenario, it's important to understand where your tool stands in the ecosystem. I also think it's perfectly acceptable that all those users will, in fact, need to pay for proprietary use. And we can build tools to make that easier.