I think there's a critical mass of usage/popularity that a software tool needs to sustain itself and I would think that after that point, the returns on popularity are increasingly diminishing. After reading the book "Working in Public" by Nadia Eghbal, I'm almost convinced that an excessive user base could be harmful to the core maintainers and thus to the project as a whole.
Some language communities can get by with a minuscule percentage of total users. 4% of all developers for example is a sizable amount. I think Emacs is in a pretty good sweet spot.
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I think there's a critical mass of usage/popularity that a software tool needs to sustain itself and I would think that after that point, the returns on popularity are increasingly diminishing. After reading the book "Working in Public" by Nadia Eghbal, I'm almost convinced that an excessive user base could be harmful to the core maintainers and thus to the project as a whole.
Some language communities can get by with a minuscule percentage of total users. 4% of all developers for example is a sizable amount. I think Emacs is in a pretty good sweet spot.