Being abandonware doesn't mean that they won't hold onto it.

For instance... I remember Pixar Typestry 2.03. Great software. It's considered abandonware. Will Pixar ever release the code? Bits of it already exist - Renderman is pretty open - in fact, almost all of it is open by now.

There's alternatives that were built off of Renderman. But will Pixar ever release the source code for Typestry?

No. And it's been abandoned since the mid-90's.

I can name a plethora of others if you so wish. Just because we want it, we can find reason in it, to them it might not make business or logical reason(s) to do so. So we're at their mercy.

And Nokia... seems to have Harmattan coming out in some form, which is based on Fremantle at least in bits; so... long story made short.

Not gonna happen.