On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 11:20:37AM -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote: > > i'm not sure firefox is the example i'd want to use right now to > demonstrate open source's spectacular glory: I suggest that sqlite be used as an example instead of firefox. It's install base easily outnumbers all applications that i can think of. For example, firefox uses it to manage some of it's data storage. So every firefox install is an installation of sqlite. Many other applications use sqlite for some form of data storage. It's also installed on almost every pda/cellphone/tablet/pvr/router/gadget/whizbang that has a list of data to track. This even includes every iPhone and iPod. see http://sqlite.org/famous.html for more examples This is a clear demonstration that open source software _CAN and DOES... 1: work well 2: plays well with others 3: runs on many platforms 4: is hugely popular (by count of installations. even if the user is unaware) I cannot think of any other project, open source, or closed, that comes even close to a tiny fraction of this level of achievement. I also seriously doubt that this achievement is simply not possible as a closed source implementation. Safe bet a significant majority of the folks who feel open source software is "crap" are unaware that they are most likely using many products of open source projects every day.. -phil p.s. @rday: You may need to find a closed source users group to ask your question of open v.s. closed myths to get an alternative opinion to balance your article.