> It is just a matter of time before there exists a compelling open source alternative to your software
The word "just" doesn't fit that sentence. Most commercial companies offer products and services for which it's "just" a matter of time before they become obsolete, irrelevant or unavailable. This may be due to technological reasons (propeller passenger aircraft which gave way to jets, sailing ships which gave way to steamers etc.) or social reasons (e.g. rigid-structured wide dresses - or for that matter, last year's fashion lines).
I believe in Open-Source - and Libre-licensed - software. But that argument is rather weak.
Also - it seems to me like most software which runs "closed-source" hardware - be it cars, household electric appliances, etc. is likely to stay closed, since such hardware is developed and released routinely so there is always a reverse-engineering challenge before that can be opened up. And usually, there are not enough people with enough interest to reverse-engineer "all the things".
The word "just" doesn't fit that sentence. Most commercial companies offer products and services for which it's "just" a matter of time before they become obsolete, irrelevant or unavailable. This may be due to technological reasons (propeller passenger aircraft which gave way to jets, sailing ships which gave way to steamers etc.) or social reasons (e.g. rigid-structured wide dresses - or for that matter, last year's fashion lines).
I believe in Open-Source - and Libre-licensed - software. But that argument is rather weak.
Also - it seems to me like most software which runs "closed-source" hardware - be it cars, household electric appliances, etc. is likely to stay closed, since such hardware is developed and released routinely so there is always a reverse-engineering challenge before that can be opened up. And usually, there are not enough people with enough interest to reverse-engineer "all the things".