Blender 4.3

It's really puzzling (but extremely welcome) that Blender continues to be such an open source success story. Seems rare for such complex pieces of software in a niche space to get that level of development. I wonder what the secret is.

What really kickstarted their development... was the introduction of the Blender Development Fund -- https://fund.blender.org/

They made tiers, made it simple and easy, and promoted it.

Before the fund really was pushed... they were getting about 5,000 USD per month to develop it... Now it is sitting at 215,000 USD per month.

More money = More developers. More Developers = Better product.

Yes it didnt happen overnight that increase, but it was slow and steady.

And apparently only 2% percent (according to their ad) donates. I wish people would be more in the “giving back” spirit. If you can afford a designer coffee, throw that money to the Blender Fund!

I donate yearly, and its worth it.

I guess one very important part is that there are now pretty big companies which depend on Blender and have an interest in Blender's continued development.