(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish)

In 1997 I worked at Worldcom qualifying backbone and data center routers. I wrote a tool to report on and display the health of all of the thousands of computers they could reach. I released it as free software. Eventually it was hosted on Sourceforge.

My next big project in 2001 was Axiom, an IBM Research computer algebra product that I rebuilt and released as free software on Savannah, a GNU site. Later versions were released on Sourceforge, Litsoft, and eventually Github.

All public work I've done is intended as "free software".

The first real attack using "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" on free software was "open source", aimed at a more corporate-friendly version of free software. This is the beginning of the "Embrace" step. There have been many steps in between I'll skip.

The Extend step is now in motion. Extend takes an idea and "makes it better" (witness J++).

For example, I'm doing work on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) on Altera, which was later bought by Intel. The "best" Intel CPUs with integrated FPGAs are only available on "data center scale machines". AMD bought Xilinx, the largest FPGA maker. So now most of the FPGA market is "Embraced and Extended", available on corporate CPUs.

I've done work on linux (Fedora, Redhat) as a truly minor attempt at contributing. The corporate "Embrace and Extend" of linux now exists (https://www.linuxfoundation.org/our-members-are-our-superpower-2/). Microsoft's version of "Extend" is Windows Subsystem for Linux. IBM bought Redhat.

I fully "bought into" git, moved Axiom to git, and even hosted my own git server. My "master site" was hosted at Github almost from the month Github was announced. Microsoft bought Github ("Embrace"). It recently announced that you need a Microsoft account to maintain code, an "Extend" step, effectively locking me out of a 20 year repository.

Recently I've been working on RISC-V. Now I see "Intel Opens to RISC-V Like Microsoft Opened to Linux" (https://then24.com/2022/02/08/intel-opens-to-risc-v-like-microsoft-opened-to-linux-1-billion-supports-shift-in-focus/). This is another "Extend" step.

The Department of Defense and Microsoft have begun the "Extinguish" phase ( https://www.computerworld.com/article/2570849/defense-department-ok-s-open-source-software.html). "Licensing terms are important but sometimes overlooked," according to Microsoft, which itself has come under fire from users over its licensing restrictions and cost.

“Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, ... a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.”

Free software has been pwned.