> By having programmers hack on and improve them. Whether they use the term
"free software" or "open source" makes no difference, as long as the programs
they hack on are free code.
That depends on how good the program is. When a program is good (like Emacs
back in the 1980s), people will contribute to it and use it on that basis.
But when it's not so good, a small, dedicated base of users is needed to prop
it up until it becomes better. That's usually, though not always, us.
As an example, consider VoIP. Libre VoIP clients have come a long way, to the
point where I should be able to help my grandfather have a video chat with me
(I'm doing that right now, through an email exchange). But a few years ago,
it was incredibly difficult to use libre VoIP, and most people used Skype.
Heck most people continue to use Skype. I seriously doubt that libre VoIP
would have come as far as it has without our dedication to it.
