They specifically chose non-profit because it allows them to remain profit driven, and continue to run the company as they have. The non-profit is the main shareholder now, and required by law to act in the interest of its founding principles. They basically did this for PR, because now, working in their customers' best interests is mandatory, and they are protected against hostile takeovers
See, I have the same issue the other way around. Hearing about Proton supporting games on Linux makes me always wonder how I can play games via my webmail account.
Similar structure, yes, but this is the important part:
Swiss foundations and their board of trustees are legally obligated to act in accordance with the purpose for which they were established
So, just like the Louvre museum in Paris and the Luxor casino in Las Vegas have similar structures, pointing this out doesn’t really contribute much to the discussion.
For all I know, OpenAI’s purpose is to create Skynet and kill all humans. But Proton’s is:
Our legally binding purpose is to further the advancement of privacy, freedom, and democracy around the world.
And this might actually get me to use Proton. I'm currently with Tuta, and the experience there is... just okay. I went with them because they claim to have even less access to my stuff vs Proton, and Proton being private didn't get me to trust them enough to use them instead (I've used them in the past though). But this structural change might convince me that they're trustworthy enough to switch to.
We'll see how it turns out. I'm still giving Tuta a shot because I like the idea of not bundling everything together, but once I get my NextCloud setup working, I'll decide how much of Proton I'll actually need, compare prices, etc.
