Those are all special cases, and are all subsidized heavily. Ordinary OSS authors are volunteers. You can only go so far that way, but people have to build a vi

Those are all special cases, and are all subsidized heavily. Ordinary OSS authors are volunteers. You can only go so far that way, but people have to build a viable career around things or they will eventually be given up. Meanwhile, the closed systems people do pay for have a monstrous advantage and will continue to be far ahead. Nowhere are they further ahead than design and user experience, which in my experience are harder and more work to get right than core code. When you make something work you are only maybe 25% of the way to making it usable. That last 75% is the no-fun stuff people have to be paid to do, and it's the stuff that separates products people use from geek projects only a tiny number of enthusiasts play with.