>I have no opinion on the matter, just wondering why you think open source catching up to closed source. Since this assertion forms the basis of your argument, you need to prove it.

Thats my proof. Why wouldn't it catch up? Is there something that is digitally impossible for Open source to do that a corporation can? Not that I know of.

>I think the flaw here is that if open source is free, then there is no way to compensate programmers for their time. Only a small minority of programmers have the will and the time to do unpaid programming.

You'd think that was the case. Amazingly, there are open source developers. I see no reason why the will all of a sudden dry up. If a former Linux developer wise up and get real jobs, there will be a new one the next day sitting in their parents basement. As long as there is unemployement, there will be open source developers. *bg*

>See above.

"Mom, can you make me some soup... with goldfish crackers?"
The career of an Open Source developer has been sustained, for one more day.

But it also comes down to big businesses like IBM throwing alot of money at these intiatives, and towards the universities, who also are always working on Open Source stuff.