Comment by pbasista

An interesting idea. But who would have to "stick" to such software? The users?

It seems to me that most of the users do not care much about what kind of software their phone runs, unfortunately. As long as it works with Instagram or whatever other big brand social media is trending these days, they are happy. Which is I think understandable.

The companies developing the apps are in my opinion driving this cultural shift. And they are doing it mostly because it brings them commercial advantages. Which is, I think, also understandable.

Everyone involved seems to to what appears to be in their best interest. And yet, collectively, we as a society get a worse outcome overall. This phenomenon perhaps has a name.

In order to break out of it, I think that the incentives on both sides need to be adjusted. It needs to be in the companies' interest to produce apps as open source. And the users need to want them.

The only way I can think of to achieve that kind of a change is when the open source apps and products become just inherently better than their proprietary alternatives. In all categories. Then, the people would want them. And then the companies will start to produce them.

It is a very tough goal. The commercial apps do not have to be better in all categories to retain their users. They can use vendor locks or other business strategies which restrict the users' ability to leave them.

Open source apps cannot do such things. The only fair ground on which they can compete is their quality.