Open source is the antidote in cases on which a particular software is dropped by the parent company for whatever reason. By being able to access the source code, anyone else can take it from that point on without much trouble.
Being capable of doing so, is not only useful to users. It actually can be seen as a safety net, an insurance that there is no dependency on any external party to keep the software they need up and running.
Not only that, since the source code is open to anyone interested in developing it the workload of doing so can be spread to all the interested parties in continuing the development of the code. By doing so, the development can continue virtually without much disruption.
Since all the users already had access to the source code, the fundamentals are well understood to begin with. With this understandings, there is a lot easier to continue development in house, or find someone else to do it.
There is no dependency on a single source of development, freeing resources to do some other things that the user needs to do.
Open source software is a key tool to keep you from being locked-in, and therefore reduce dependency, on the fate of a single source. At the end, closed source software is only good for the source of the software.
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