> the OSS community [...] never managed to produce software that regular non-tech-geeks want to use
That's true, barely, only if you equate "software" with "things that draw stuff presented on a display to a user". Regular non-tech-geeks are using open source software (in the real sense, meaning instructions given to a computer to make it do something) pervasively, everywhere, every day, on all their devices (yes, even the Apple ones, but especially all the devices they use that aren't in their pockets).
Open source certainly isn't a failure, it literally won the war.
You are totally right that open source is powering countless things people use regularly but I expect most people don't even know what open source software is, much less care about it.
Then why is everything on the consumer side becoming more closed?
The reality is that proprietary just moved to the cloud in the form of SaaS-as-DRM and we-own-your-data. Open source runs everything, but few things are open. The availability of the source for components of the stuff they use is irrelevant to 99% of users.
You're correct, of course. I think the point that was being made was more about people actively choosing to use open source.
If you were to approach a non-tech person and ask them how many open source apps they use on a daily basis, they would probably say "none", even if it's not the case.
I'll point out that you're still doing the thing where you equate "software" with "apps".
But even so, that doesn't seem informative. Ask any user how many "Qualcomm apps" they use, or "Meta apps", or "Intel apps". No one knows where this stuff comes from. They buy a phone with a label on the box and then download stuff from an app store.
That's not a statement about how the software is produced, it's just how the market presents products to consumers. People don't know where the gas that goes into their cars comes from either, but that's not an argument that petroleum distillation technology is a failure.
You literally exercised huge amounts (seriously: millions of lines!) of open source code just now, in the process of posting that very comment and transmitting it to me to read.
yeah, over the last few years I've seen more and more companies launching open source software, and hosting it as a service. it seems to be working well. on the software side they don't sell a product, but a service.
That's true, barely, only if you equate "software" with "things that draw stuff presented on a display to a user". Regular non-tech-geeks are using open source software (in the real sense, meaning instructions given to a computer to make it do something) pervasively, everywhere, every day, on all their devices (yes, even the Apple ones, but especially all the devices they use that aren't in their pockets).
Open source certainly isn't a failure, it literally won the war.