Steve Ballmer was right about open source

I think the biggest thing open source does is allow you to choose the level of investment you have in it. As someone who works in IT, I don't generally just grab an open source project and deploy it at work: It becomes a burden on me, not the developer, when things aren't working right. I need things which are supported.

But that's a choice I make. I could choose to use an open source system, and we could hire a developer to make it do what we need rather than paying the company. Maybe I can just use a free open source solution for something if it's temporary or not critical and not a big deal if something happens.

Many open source products have commercial tiers and support offerings, and I can choose those if needbe, but I'm not forced to. Really, the main difference here is that I get to choose my risk with open source, whereas a closed source product will have a set cost.