>>Open Source development like with Python, PHP, C , etc are not at the mercy or whims of a corporate giant that might feel the need to manipulate a development language to support their bottom line. Microsoft is really of the old proprietary programming world. The writing is on the wall for the future of software development and it is Open Source.
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>For dev languages, perhaps. For specific products and tools, not so much so. The main problem I have with open source is that you can't get good support. Sure, there are forums and such, but I've never seen the type of consistent response you can get from a company selling a commercial product. If a system is down and a customer is hollering, you need quick and dedicated support. You can't get that consistently from open source projects. So while I think it has a place, it is not a panacea. Not everything will be open source and that will be for the best.

OTOH, there are companies which specialize in exactly that - selling support for open source systems. Which would give you the best of both worlds.

And, in my experience, the first line of attack when solving a problem is to read about it - just google the error message, or whatever articles you can find about the subject. The trouble with proprietary software is that 90% of the hits in the latter case are sales oriented. And in the former case, the error message was actually wrong (and I had such luck that I lost three days on three wrong messages - see my recent blogs). And in the end, with proprietary products, I find the solution on the forums, it just takes more time than with Open Source.