Yesterday, we've found an article "Repackaging Saxon". It's about a decision to go away from Saxon-B/Saxon-SA packaging to a more conventional product line: Home/Professional/Enterprise Editions.

The good news are that the Saxon stays open source. That's most important as an open comunity spirit will be preserved. On the other hand Professional and Enterprise Editions will not be free.

In this regard the most interesting comments are:

John Cowan> I suspect that providing packaging only for $$ (or pounds or euros) won't actually work, because someone else will step in and provide that packaging for free, as the licensing permits.

and response:

Michael Kay> This will be interesting to see. I'm relying partly on the idea that there's a fair degree of trust, and expectation of support, associated with Saxonica's reputation, and that the people who are risking their business on the product might be hesitant to rely on third parties, who won't necessarily be prompt in issuing maintenance releases etc; at the same time, such third parties may serve the needs of the hobbyists who are the real market for the open source version.

and also:

Michael Kay> ...I haven't been able to make a model based on paid services plus free software work for me. It's hard enough to get the services business; when you do get it, it's hard to get enough revenue from it to fund the time spent on developing and supporting the software. Personally, I think the culture of free software has gone too far, and it is now leading to a lack of investment in new software...