Positive Impressions of Open Source Software

I must say that I am becoming more and more impressed with the options coming out of the open source software communities. There are some top notch pieces of software available for free or extremely low priced that are quite competitive with their better known commercial rivals. More and more I am seeing applications and suites such as GIMP and OpenOffice that give me viable options when deciding what to install on my Mac and PC's. I am not going to bash the big software companies here but I truly believe that if they are faced with some serious competition that everyone in the industry will begin to focus on more stable and more improved pieces of software instead of the stale offerings we see most of the time.

All too often I will see manufacturers putting out new upgrades, with higher prices but in reality you are not getting much for your money. I see software being released with a new point upgrade but nothing innovative about it and the manufacturers get away with it because they have little to fear. We have just a few serious, major software companies out there at the moment and they have no incentive to really improve upon anything as we, the consumer don't have many avenues to pursue. So I am very excited about the future and hope that we are not too far away from some real options.