OP suggests that having a large company behind a software tool (Microsoft in full control of Playright) is a positive thing and is an advantage over Selenium.
I tend to see that negatively. Community driven projects (or non profit organisation behind them) like Python, Postgres, Firefox always are more trustworthy and likely to last longer in general.
But Python itself is controlled by an independent foundation[1] and an elected steering council[2], which is very different from being owned by Microsoft.
For example, if Microsoft wanted to change CPython to automatically collect sloppily anonymized user data and send it to Microsoft without asking, as they did with .NET[3], I would expect the steering council reject that proposal.
I find it astonishing that you thinking the current employer of the BDFL isn’t public knowledge! But even more astonishing that you alluding this can have an impact on the PSF. GvR working for Microsoft isn’t the same as Microsoft acquistion of GitHub.
Having big corporations contribute to projects is totally great! The incentives are just fucky when they control them.
My favorite example: VSCode is a great piece of software, but almost half of it is actually only available in a proprietary build from Microsoft's website that contains telemetry.
> but almost half of it is actually only available in a proprietary build from Microsoft
Which half?
VSCodium works great, so I'd go as far to say 99% of VSCode is actually open source (the name and icons being exceptions). You cannot say proprietary extensions are half of VSCode.
Playwright is Open Source - the worst thing that will happen if Microsoft will kill it - you’ll be able to use the latest release until you find some replacement.
The bad scenario isn't Microsoft killing it, it's them slowly forcing everyone using it into Azure, Windows and Visual Studio, which is their usual, I think partially openly admitted, open source strategy nowadays.
Recently Microsoft announced they were killing off GitHub Atom.
Being able to use the latest release of a dead project is no big reassurance.
This might be an anecdotal case, but it is indeed real world proof that a project being backed by a company the likes of Microsoft does increase the odds of being killed off.
Sure. [hypothetically] After Microsoft makes new "Azure UI Test", it will surely kill Playwright in favor of the new thing. It wouldn't make sense to maintain two browser automation frameworks. The second one being bound to their cloud offering is just a ... coincidence?
I tend to see that negatively. Community driven projects (or non profit organisation behind them) like Python, Postgres, Firefox always are more trustworthy and likely to last longer in general.