If a tech becomes main stream, corporations (and people) begin commercializing it. The de facto strategy in our era for commercializing any tech is surveilling its users.
If a technology can't be harnessed, corporations will contain if not outright kill it.
We've seen this time and time again. So, the only way to win, in the sense of surviving and thriving, would be for that tech to fly under the radar. Remain in the hands of individuals who care and build it for themselves. In that sense, there are many free software that have already won.
My question is, why on earth are people obsessed with things like the year of the Linux desktop, and more people adopting their software.
Fragmentation is probably the only way free software will remain free.