I love view on open source presented by Paul Ramsey [1].  He described software as ecosystem, where code is fighting for developers time. Case for proprietary software is pretty simple: - software sellings (userbase) = more money for hiring developers - software stops to sells = developers are going away and software dies For obvious reasons this isn't valid, when we're speaking about open source.  Still people tend to look at open source, same way as at proprietary software: popularity contest.  This way all the talk about "normal and casual users" kicks in. Many miss the point, that open source software doesn't need to be mainstream to be successful.  Even small projects like dwm can get enough developers time to sustain it needs.  It is successful in own environment, let say desert or tundra.  It is totally understandable, that normal users can't operate in this environment. LaTeX, Vim, dwm - those project will never hit mainstream, but they won't die anytime soon either.  How relevant normal user is in the context of this software and why we should even care? [1] http://blip.tv/fosslc/osgeo-foss4g-keyno.....-3-2778270