You are defining "good" as "feature rich", which are different concepts. For example, MySQL wasn't and isn't as feature rich as the big closed databases, but i

You are defining "good" as "feature rich", which are different concepts. For example, MySQL wasn't and isn't as feature rich as the big closed databases, but it solved many problems as well as they did, and in many cases with less overhead (learning curve, administration, hardware requirements). So, in a way it was better than the alternatives, and that's why it gained traction. Compare to H.264 vs. Theora. Theora is just an alternative, it doesn't solve any problems better, it is just "open", which most people don't care about.