> While true in principle, that doesn't happen very often. A large open source application that's abandoned by it's maintainer(s) will die very quickly, and it'

> While true in principle, that doesn't happen very often. A large open source application that's abandoned by it's maintainer(s) will die very quickly, and it's hard to find someone who'll take on the job of maintaining it even if you're willing to pay. While that does happen, you get people forking the original project and so on. And it should be noted that if a piece of software works "well enough" then there isn't really a need to update every two weeks -- the software works and don't touch it. If there's a bug that's bothering them, then you can absolutely pay a contractor to modify the code and fix the bug (that's what contractors do). Obviously the contractor wouldn't be happy to implement huge new features, but that's why you should fund the original project so it doesn't die.