It's funny to see those same arguments which where there 10 years go still here, though most of them are proven wrong.

Open Source is no success? Today, when it is nearly impossible get a highend smartphone without any open source on it?

Today, when it is very hard to find a company or privat household in germany (or most likely anywhere) without running open source software in it.

Today, when we are getting near to the point where there are more linux kernels running on the world at any given time than windows kernels? (Think of dsl/wlan-routers in private homes, android phones, servers, N900s, (the first 4 mostly running 24/7) normal linux desktops *g*)

10 years ago people like you (to the OP and others with same opinions) told as that linux and open source will never have a hugh market share. And well they couldn't be more wrong.

And well on the commercial side:

Let's look at Apple/iPhone and Safari. Apple took kthml/kjs (a truly community based open source html renderer/javascript interpreter part of the KDE project) and made it into Webkit. Apple did this, because it enabled them to deliver a better product with less cost or in less time. Apple had and has developers working on Webkit (as has Nokia). The are paid for it. In fact the iPhone and Nokia customers pay them.

If open source enables companys to deliver better products at lower costs, than open source enables you to get better products at a lower price.

Or if you have a company or want to develop something for the fun of it: You can get a world class html renderer (Webkit) a lightweight and relible database engine (sqlite (which is in the iPhone for example)) (and lots of other components) and builds on that. Building something like Webkit from the grounds would cost you millions.

So yes, open source enables companys to do things they othersways never could affort to do. And thus enable products which wouldn't exist (at least in this quality) without it. So open source is very successfull.

I believe most IT companies are using open source either as software tools in house or as components in their products.

Yes, all those examples (iPhones, Routers and so on) are only partly based on open source. But still, some of their core features are based on it. And you can go and get the sources of it and build your on devices/software to use those components.

Open source is an enomours success on every level. :-)

And there are still valid reasons for closed source software. But the can happly coexist.