But popularity is one of the merits a software package can possess. Popularity offers: * A wider availability of resources -- tutorials, books, documentation o

But popularity is one of the merits a software package can possess. Popularity offers: * A wider availability of resources -- tutorials, books, documentation of any kind, a community around the software that can offer help and support to new users, related tools and add-ons. * Evidence of the potential for longevity in the software -- the more popular it is, the more likely it is to continue to receive new features and bugfixes. * Portability of the knowledge of the workings of the software -- for users, this means that investing time and energy into learning the software now is a better investment, because that learning has a higher likelihood of being useful down the road. For people running projects, it means a larger pool of people who already have knowledge useful to contributing to your project. Your statement basically translates to, "I wish people would use software based on hypotheticals, rather than an evaluation of what it's like to actually use that software."