Distros Split Governance From Commerce

Open‑source distributions are increasingly formalizing community non‑profits to hold domains, repos, trademarks and funds separately from commercial companies tied to founders. Manjaro’s registration of Manjaro Project e.V. after a developer manifesto and threats to fork shows developers using legal association structures to secure control and reduce single‑founder lock‑in. — If other major projects follow, it changes stewardship norms, legal relationships with commercial sponsors, and how communities defend infrastructure and trademarks—affecting software freedom, supply security and vendor accountability.