Many notable or even vital software projects are literally maintained by one person, sometimes even in companies. I am certain that most users don’t “get” this

Many notable or even vital software projects are literally maintained by one person, sometimes even in companies. I am certain that most users don’t “get” this about software. And from experience, most users don’t contribute anything at all, not even the most basic bug reports. They do however complain. The best way to “mourn” a lost software project is to ask yourself what you will do to maintain the software ecosystem. How many things do you use for free? How many things have bugs you never bothered to tell anyone about? Has each of you contributed something (even a short E-mail thank-you) to some software project?