[PabloOsinaga]

What you say is partially true for 'mainstream' type of things.

Open Source is particularly useful for the long tail. That particular library that is very relevant to you and maybe 20-50 other people in the world. It makes sense to join forces and make it better - but it will never be absolutely mainstream.

Secondly, I say your point 'partially true for mainstream things' because even in mainstream things, there will always be customizations/particularities that again are useful to you and 30-50 other people in the world - thus you join forces (e.g., a obscure linux module).

Agree with you that 99.9% of the people will not

It's all a matter of long tails. Without open source, all long tail efforts would be each independent person doing it for themselves (when you have 30-50 people in the world that should be sharing!)

Although the modern web is making it viable for small teams w/little capital to go after long-tail in a commercial way (many YC startups are a testament to this) --- although I don't imagine them doing this for a 30-50 people target market.