I think it's a bit of a pendulum. The enthusiasm and excitement for open source was largely driven by the locked-down environment of the time. Access to source

I think it's a bit of a pendulum. The enthusiasm and excitement for open source was largely driven by the locked-down environment of the time. Access to source and high-quality free software with source was an exhilarating novelty. But now we're kind of saturated, and used to it. Practically everything is free, it's not exciting anymore. New open source projects feel like just a drop in the bucket. Creators don't get the same sense of accomplishment from releasing new code. It may be necessary for a whole new generation to experience how shitty it is to be stuck with for-pay locked-down software that gradually rots beneath you, juggling library licences, phoning IT help lines for trivial problems, and having to ship every few years to some new (expensive) hotness.