I don't get it. Once DL-ed, what do we care what MS does about free software releases?
I can think of 5 concerns that far outweight any consideration about MS' continued support of free software releases.
1/ Compatibility with future versions of Windows. Not everyone will have old versions of Windows to run obsolete software
2/ Patching security flaws (or any flaw for that matter) that might arise after support was dropped.
3/ Acquisition. Does the MS license allow for distribution by others? If not then someone who wanted to run a server after MS stopped distribution would have the choice of illegally acquaint one or not running a server. The same applies to someone who had a legal copy but had it destroyed or lost in some fashion.
1.) Doesn't wash.
2.) Isn't that what is being done here is the team is trying to develop SFC4? I see their work in part as trying to adopt and extend legacy software (Q3) to run on future versions of windows and extend it to embrace other OSs?
3.) Let's hope that the development team has the foresight/and or time to write the application in such a manner that future versions of the database application can be implemented with as little recompiling of exe as possible. But, no matter which base SQL Server solution is chosen, it is going to age and will need to be updated and modernized.
all three of your points link into one thing. MS SQL is released for use, but not the source code. Thus is they drop support for the free version.
1) as windows come out with new versions it is possible it will not work with it.
2) We can't update it without the source code
3) Following the coding specs of the SQL package will mostly illiminate the need for updating or moderizing the source, as you just install the newer version of SQL that is being maintained by someone else and you are up to date. If some of the coding specs change then you will have to update the software to handle that.