Stallman and the FSF are approaching this from an philosophical standpoint (closed source is harmful, free software is liberating, etc.) so their efforts aren't

Stallman and the FSF are approaching this from an philosophical standpoint (closed source is harmful, free software is liberating, etc.) so their efforts aren't often very strategic or even practical to most of us. And when trying to provide people alternatives to closed source software they are not going to be doing the kind of innovation you are thinking of, they are instead dedicating so many resources just trying to catch up. That being said, I don't know why Google Earth is in there. I understand applications like Flash and Skype but on a list of top items I can think of quite a few more things that are more useful than Google Earth.