Yeah, yeah, autoconf sucks, so does maven (IMHO), software is complex, and, yes, we could do better... But, to reason from these examples about thousands of projects is disingenuous.

The rumors of open source's demise have been greatly exaggerated.

I use open source both privately (Linux, some open source games, FreeBSD a long time ago), and professionally (mostly Java and database stuff), and while sometimes I can't help rolling my eyes, on the whole open source works incredibly and surprisingly well; especially compared to the alternative of closed-only corporate software.