OP.
To express their support, Microsoft is joining the Blender Foundation’s Development Fund as a Corporate Gold member per July 1st, 2020.
We at Blender are very proud of this support statement, it’s another important signal that the industry migrates to open source and finds ways to contribute to it.
Ton Roosendaal,
Chairman Blender Foundation
___
So what do you guys think about that?
Is it beginning of the end and Blender would degrade over time or -- let's just pretend that devil does not exist  -- there is a bright future for us all and Blender especially?
Am I understanding your concern?
I don’t see how microsoft giving back has anything to do with Blender degrading in quality since the foundation is a place to donate.
I don’t see it like I do the stock market and investors changing the goals of companies.
I think it is great news that microsoft is joining. It means bigger companies are taking blender much more seriously in their workflow. It may even mean my  engineering company will accept it as a program in their It workspace one day and stop wasting money on software that does the same thing.
Well, there is a thing called reputation. And I'd never believe that MS cares about anything except its revenues. And Ton is known as a person who has no interest in money. So why would they cooperate?
It is quite usual in corporate world to kill something that might become a competitor in a future. Even in a gentle way.
I agree most fortune 500 companies are interested in only 1 thing: shareholders and return on investment. But I have seen large companies give charity towards causes that they find important for the global community. It could go either way.
Well I will attempt to be optimistic and hope for the best. I love blender for being free but I am glad the devs are getting donations from big name companies.
I haven't seen something this good that was free......ever. So in my mind I'm happy with the way it is. Will it last? Who knows but I'm on board until it doesn't haha.
Maybe you misunderstand how the development fund works for blender. Msoft isn't only a big corporation funding blender either. They have no say on what the money will be used for in development. and they stated that themselves that there are no strings attached.Â
it's funny really, Microsoft joins the funding and I see people yelling doom and gloom, and yet when you look the corporate list, there are other companies, that has a lot worse reputation now than msoft,Â
so worry not, blender isn't going to change into msoft product. and given blender is open source, they could have already taken it and made their own out of it if they would have wanted to. Anyone actually can do that. :)
blanchsb
I think that charity allows them to lower their taxes and that's it. But I like your approach, it is quite reasonable)
>>there are other companies, that has a lot worse reputation now than msoft
Is it even possible? Its like meeting a devil that says: there are entities far worse than me.
Hmm, let me think... maybe EA or Disney? But I'd call them even.
If Microsoft uses Blender, it's in their best interest to help it become as useful and stable as possible. Spending money on the dev fund and making a commit here or there is far cheaper then hiring their own devs to create an alternative or buying Maya licenses for all their artists. That's really about all there is to it! It's a win-win for everyone except Autodesk, so I am really not sure where the pushback is coming from in the community.Â
Yup that was what I was thinking. Great comment. I am glad the devs are getting great financial support. They have a great path and I think people are taking them seriously now that they see what they can do.
I mean just look at blender now. Think about what it will be able to do in 5 years!