I think you nailed the problem with this type of software -- they lag behind the cutting edge because they copy features from the leaders rather than innovate o

I think you nailed the problem with this type of software -- they lag behind the cutting edge because they copy features from the leaders rather than innovate on their own. (There are some exceptions to that, though, in the case where the project is driven by someone ambitious and passionate.) I think the point is that they provide free alternatives to the majority of users who need to use them, but who don't need the full feature set of a pay version. I use gimp and oocalc all the time, but I'm not a power user, so they tend to work out just fine.