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The most popular computers and electronics in the world are Apple products because Apple polished everything to a sheen.

Sure apple created some cool stuff, but the open source world created some pretty darn cool stuff too. Remember, the first web browser was open source.

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Great example, but that was a long time ago. The argument being made here is that there isn't enough innovation in the free software space in recent years.

What about the massive strides that Chrome/Mozilla/WebKit are making? What about the innovations in programming languages such as Clojure and Arc and Erlang? What about the innovations in frameworks such as node.js and sproutcore?

I could go on all day. IMO, it's a lot easier to find innovation in the open source world than it is in the commercial world which seems to be more about copy & polish than it does about innovation.

If you were arguing that open source lacked polish, I would agree with you. But innovation? Hardly.

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