The evidence is that in the future, it will be a very viable option on a number of fronts. Miller compared the development of open source to the world of academic research, where research findings are critiqued by one s peers after being published. Most software users don t care about the source code, but it s important that others do. It would not benefit me personally to read the latest articles on cancer research in the medical literature. However, it s certainly to every health-care consumer s benefit that the peers within that research community review, critique and correct each other s work.
Open source has the potential to benefit the software consumer in much the same way.