It’s tempting to ascribe this to the “cult of no-pay”, programmers and users who simply won’t pay for software no matter how good it is, or how inexpensive it may be. These people used to be called pirates. Now they’re open source enthusiasts.

But there’s something else going on here, too: the free software alternatives keep getting better every year.

And that is the power and greatness of open source. Collaborative efforts to improve software.