>The PC software world did run for quite a few years on the model of predominantly commercial/proprietary software, most of it being closed-source, so it's not like it is some far-fetched idea that doesn't work in economic terms.

And now Microsoft uses linux on the majority of their own cloud offerings. Open source beats propriety software on economic terms a lot of the time. It doesn't matter that both can work in economic terms, it matters which one is better in economic terms.