It also tends to remove the inefficiencies of duplicated work as over the long haul, open source projects tend to merge and dominate, after a phase of intense c

It also tends to remove the inefficiencies of duplicated work as over the long haul, open source projects tend to merge and dominate, after a phase of intense competition between rival projects. This means software developers spend more time creating unique software, which is significantly more productive over re-implementing the same commodity software over again. This is REAL economic value. Just look at what the very mature GCC project has done for so many platform companies and developers in general. It's also much cheaper to procure open source software, because there's no purchase justification, budgeting, or sales process.