And yet again, this wired.com article points out the dangers of depending on proprietary software at all. While it may be true that if you use software from some established vendor you have less to worry about having to deal with this problem, the fact that no one can say it will never happen like it happen to the likes of Kodak.
The fact that open source software gives you the possibility to keep the software you depend upon alive, since the users can come together to continue the work on the software from where the original company left. It puts the control of the software on the hands of the users, and its up to the user the degree of involvement on the development of the software it uses.
Its okay to trust companies to develop and maintain the software we depend upon, but that's not a good reason to give them full control of said software. But, the user should always have ultimate control over the software.
There is no way to understate how important that user have that level of control, since in many cases the software they use becomes part of the core of what they do and there could be no substitute readily available to replace if it can't get support for it should the vendor of said software were decide to stop supporting or went out of business. Open software gives users the option to keep using the software they need either by picking up development themselves, using the support by the people who pick up the development or by hiring someone to do so, to name a few options out there.
Open source software has proven itself, with examples like Firefox and Android leading the way on the consumer software side. The idea that open source software is hard to use, and that it can't be as good as proprietary software, is completely bogus and unfounded.
Now more than ever, it's time that users regain control over the software that they use and depend on.
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