People that left Magento

Amongst the people that left Magento (either before, during or after the process of relabeling Magento Commerce into Adobe Commerce and unrelated to the fork discussions), there are big names: Ben, Max, Anton, Sharon, Igor G., Ramadass, Vitalii (haha, well which one). I'm only listing a few names here as example, not that pointing them out should be a big thing. This blog is not about them. It's what I see as a phase in the history of an ecosystem and I wonder if it is healthy.

Don't get me wrong: Leaving a company is healthy and natural. Times change. Been there, done that. And these people leaving the company doesn't necessarily mean a thing on its own. Each one of them (and the others I didn't mention here) did have their own personal reasons for moving on. And I truely hope that moving on brings them peace and prosperity \\//.

In fact, before the entire take-over by Adobe, people were also coming and leaving. It is an aspect of life. However, it seems to me that more people have left Magento since the Adobe take-over compared to the numbers before the take-over. Correct me if I'm wrong.

People that arrived at Adobe

On the other hand, it is also fair to say that numerous people arrived at Adobe Commerce to start a bright new career. Amongst these names are Jordan, Deryck, Dewi, Anton and Shawn. Kudos to you. And while I said that this blog was not really about the people leaving Magento, it does have more to do with the fresh people arriving at Adobe. Or actually the process that brought them there.

What has struck me repeatedly is the number of people that have been acquired by Adobe. Another way of putting it is to say that they simply started working for Adobe, but I got the impression - by talking to various new employees - that the word acquiring is a better fit: It was not only that the new people themselves were interested in starting a new job at Adobe. It was also that the HR department reached out for them - actively.

It seems like a simple step: If you want to grow your company, you start searching for new people in your ecosystem. Likewise, Adobe needed more people in the Commerce department, so they went look for them in the Magento community.

People that don't want to arrive at Adobe

This one made me laugh: Yegor Shytikov tweeted about such an attempt. However, if you know the content that Yegor normally tweets about, I wonder if HR got that money. The tweet: "Today I received job offer from the @Adobe company. But it was declined. My answer was: 'I will never work for Adobe for ethical reasons. I don’t wanna develop cloud tools that Russian terrorists will use to make propaganda and money!' @Adobe is still doing business with Russia!" It made me laugh.

But it also brought up a doubt: Adobe seems to hire everyone. And by doing so, they also reach out to people who think differently about Adobe. Again this is not about the people leaving Magento, it is not about the people starting a job at Adobe, it is not about Yegor. It is about the process.

Hiring people from your open source community

Adobe has plans for Adobe Commerce (and therefore Magento) and apparently that plan requires more people. And instead of hiring new people without Magento experience, hiring people with Magento experience is a wise choice. But if your only goal is to hire as many people possible, what does that do with a community that is getting more and more fragmented?

To my personal feeling, the process of hiring people from the open source community is making sure that Adobe is growing, but also that the open source community is actually getting smaller because of that. True, Magento fans that work for Adobe can still be Magento fans, but their opinion is biased, their actions need to comply with Magento as well. And it determines their position in the community, instead of them choosing their position freely. How free are they to join a MageOS board or bitch about the Adobe PWA Studio roadmap or announce that Figma is going to be dead in 2 years.

I find it hard to come up with an opinion on this or to say what would be wise to do here. Adobe mentioned that they are committed to the open source community. As a commercial entity, hiring people from that community makes perfect sense. It is not the end of things. But in the sake of the open source community, diversity is healthier: If you consider the comparison of The Cathedral And The Bazar, the owner of the cathedral should now purchase all of the seats in the bazar.

What about Yireo?

I don't know if I will ever receive a job offer from Adobe. I'm trying to be humble to say that I'm not made out of the right material that they need. And perhaps they are simply not looking for a person like me (stupid jokes, blunt blogs, drunk at parties). But if I would ever receive a job offer from them, my answer is clear beforehand: No. I personally think it is much healthier for me (as an extension vendor, teacher of developers and community member) to be affiliated of all sides of the community. The more people are acquired by Adobe rapidly, the more the balance is off. It simply makes me feel a bit awkward.