One could almost say it got started with free software. And they have done well for themselves and for the world. IBM sure as hell would not have made computing as pervasive as MS has done. So something like Linux has a chance. Remains to be seen.
Open interfaces promote diversity.
Money is a great example of that. But money is rather sterile. Linux is more fecund. Interestingly enough, it was the intersection of the Internet and the GNU Free Software concepts that gave rise to Linux in the early '90s. Linus Torvalds, then a computer science student in Finland, got sick of not having an OS that he could explore, learn from and freely extend.