It's a shame it had to come to this but I can see why Element had to make this choice.
To me it feels like they've ended up in a position similar to Docker Inc. where they've spent years of work and tons of resources building the standards and reference implementations, but missed out on the juicy integration and support contracts.
Docker has turned into the OCI standard and most Kubernetes deployment don't even run containerd anymore. The company has massively rate limited Docker hub and recently increased the pricing again, which has had much bigger impact for end users than this pivot by Element.
I really hope this works out as a funding source for future Matrix development, I don't see how its ecosystem can continue to be developed and healthy without Element.
To me it feels like they've ended up in a position similar to Docker Inc. where they've spent years of work and tons of resources building the standards and reference implementations, but missed out on the juicy integration and support contracts.
Docker has turned into the OCI standard and most Kubernetes deployment don't even run containerd anymore. The company has massively rate limited Docker hub and recently increased the pricing again, which has had much bigger impact for end users than this pivot by Element.
I really hope this works out as a funding source for future Matrix development, I don't see how its ecosystem can continue to be developed and healthy without Element.