# Blender

Standing (still-up). Founded 1994-01-02.
Site: [blender.org](https://blender.org)

Ton Roosendaal, 1994. Open sourced in 2002 after the community paid off the creditors.

## Why it lasted
- The 2002 community buyout turned a doomed in-house tool into a public good. That origin story still funds it.
- It is now good enough that studios use it without apologising.
- YouTube taught a generation to model in Blender for free. Switching costs are a career.

## Near deaths
- NaN went bankrupt. Blender would have died as a binary on a forgotten FTP. The fundraiser cleared the license in seven weeks.

## What would finish it
- A free tool with the same depth and a less hostile default keymap. Unlikely. Autodesk would have to give Maya away.

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