I was looking up the Sparc S8 mentioned in the article and the first discussion that came up is quickly derailed due to worrying about copyright: https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/sparclinux/patch/202511...

Who's the target audience for that announcement?

a. Existing customers already got their hands chopped, their prices raised, or their lawyers poked. They're stuck with an abusive, litigious, opaque vendor and will migrate out when they can. Many are stuck.

b. Prospective customers must have some compatibility need or they'd look elsewhere.

c. Developers won't be fooled so rule them out :)

Shades of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHW58D-_O64