[wiz21c]

I know that but the idea behind my question was this: the knowledge we need to put in such a program doesn't move as fast as the program evolves. Therefore, given enough time (say 20 years), the open source solutions will cover more or less the same ground as the expensive solution. Of course the expensive one may always have an edge but that edge should get smaller over time. For example, Oracle remains a gold standard, really expensive but postgres covers many needs. Linux-on-the-desktop is also quite good, although not as good as, say, MacOS.

In the same vein, I was expecting SymPy to be like 80% of Mathematica but the given benchmark says it's about 25%. So I was suprised.

And I'm not thinking about UX, support, etc. which are indeed not often very good because, I guess, people prefer to put their energy in things that have the bigger leverage.