>What makes you think open source can catch up to and pass closed source technologies?

Why woudln't they be able to catch up? What does a corporation with say 2000 engineers bring to the table that can't be matched by openly available software being maintained by the entire earth.

>>simply that they have taken proprietary software about as far as it can go when the threat of open source exists.
>What makes you think proprietary has gone as far as it can go?

When the threat of open source exists, keep in mind. What I mean by this is, if there was a platform (say 20, 50 years out), that was ultra reliable, ultra secure, ultra fast, and completely free, what would a proprieatary OS offer an enterprise? Why would the choose the costly solution that isn't as proven or customizable?

>That vast majority of the desktop, pc-based servers, minis and mainframes run proprietary OSs. I don't see this changing much. Especially when nobody actually pays money for open source OS's. I have never know anyone to pay a dime for Linux. That just isn't sustainable.

Why isn't that sustainable? If no one owns the source, what is there to even sustain?