I think ESR is quite correct in saying that the 40 separate efforts
couldn't be nearly as effective as the combined open source effort, and
there's definite incentive for combining effort because of the stake in
security and stability.
On the other hand, I think the comment would apply when it comes to
consumer software that didn't have such high demands on stability and
security, at least in the short to medium run, and I guess he noted this
in his "doom" example.
In anycase, for applications that do not have a high demand for support
(including debug, maintenance, extension, etc.), it would appear that the
"free" software programmer would not have much to gain, economically.
Would you guys agree?
-- # Ken Lai <min-ken.lai@yale.edu> also at ken.lai@WriteMe.com # http://pantheon.yale.edu/~ml267/ ICQ# 5845632