Knuth has answered your worries in 1990:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ntg.nl&#x2F;maps&#x2F;05&#x2F;34.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ntg.nl&#x2F;maps&#x2F;05&#x2F;34.pdf</a><p>&quot;I have put these systems into the public domain so that
people everywhere can use the ideas freely if they wish.
I have also spent thousands of hours trying to ensure
that the systems produce essentially identical results on
all computers. I strongly believe that an unchanging
system has great value, even though it is axiomatic that
any complex system can be improved.&quot;<p>&quot;Of course I do not claim to have found the best solution
to every problem. I simply claim that it is a great
advantage to have a fixed point as a building block. Improved
macro packages can be added on the input side;
improved device drivers can be added on the output side.
I welcome continued research that will lead to alternative
systems that can typeset documents better than TEX
is able to do. But the authors of such systems must think
of another name.<p>That is all I ask, after devoting a substantial portion
of my life to the creation of these systems and making
them available to everybody in the world. I sincerely
hope that the members of TUG will help me to enforce
these wishes, by putting severe pressure on any person or
group who produces any incompatible system and calls
it TEX or METAFONT or Computer Modern — no matter
how slight the incompatibility might seem.&quot;