> I honestly can't think of another industry that relies so heavily on things they get for free and come with no warranty. I can think of plenty examples of su

> I honestly can't think of another industry that relies so heavily on things they get for free and come with no warranty. I can think of plenty examples of such industries: mining, logging, oil, wind and solar energy etc. However, the difference is that any imperfections in the "things", in case of those industries, is literally caused by forces of nature, and measures have been developed over centuries to mitigate or avoid them. With open source, the free "things" are created by humans, and it's too easy to fall into the trap of seeing them as just another set of "vendors", even though the base principles - which make things free on the first place - are actually quite different. I'm my mind, any company depending on open source has only a few possible options: 1. Directly pay someone - either the original authors or someone else, inside the company or outside - to ensure the maintenance and support for the open source code. 2. Not use open source and only go for commercial vendors, which may not always be available.