GoKawiilBig tech companies have a habit of offering something for free, watching the user base grow, and then quietly walking it back once people are too invested to leave easily. A bait-and-switch, so to speak.
Redis did exactly this back in March 2024, dropping its long-standing BSD license for the more restrictive dual licensing model, and the blowback was severe enough that the community forked it into Valkey almost immediately.
Linux tends to get hit hardest by these moves. Its comparatively smaller user base means less commercial pressure, making it an easy target to throw under the bus whenever companies feel like cutting costs or boosting profits.
One such case has now surfaced that will make you wonder if this particular company's decision was really shortsighted or is just a cash grab.
It doesn't make sense!
Vivado is AMD's design suite for its FPGAs and adaptive SoCs. It is what engineers, students, and hardware hobbyists use to write, synthesize, and test their FPGA designs. Until now, it has been available for free on both Windows and Linux under what AMD called the Standard Edition.
Starting with the 2026.1 release, AMD is switching to a tiered licensing model. The free Basic tier covers entry-level devices but is restricted to Windows only. Linux support does not show up until the "Core" tier, which costs somewhere between $1,200-$1,800 per year.
AMD framed all of this on its download page as a move toward more flexible licensing. On its dedicated licensing options page, the company told free-tier users the only thing changing was a simple annual license renewal.
That's not all. 🤷
When users went to AMD's support forum asking for an explanation, forum moderator Anatoli Curran showed up in the thread. His first order of business was to warn people about "bad language or abusive behaviour towards AMD," before getting around to addressing anything of substance.
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