One of the things I've noticed about FOSS is that it tends to be very good at replicating proprietary solutions, but it very frequently stumbles when innovating

One of the things I've noticed about FOSS is that it tends to be very good at replicating proprietary solutions, but it very frequently stumbles when innovating on new ones. I think it's because there's a shortage of qualified designers and marketers that are interested in contributing. Or maybe it's just easier to get people on the same page when it's very clear what the thing is meant to be. Or maybe if you have a new idea, you want to try commercializing it before you give it away. Probably all three really. But TBH that's what makes me skeptical that userland FOSS is ever really going to be dominant. The biggest successes of FOSS have pretty much all been by technical people for technical people (linux kernel, developer tools, servers, etc.). Those are great things, but it seems like things aimed at non-technical users almost always end up being pretty niche. (I will slightly disagree on Blender though, the latest release 2.8 release is shaping up to be really impressive -- I've been a long time Maya user and I'm actually considering switching)