Open Source could be BETTER

Some economics thinking -

Is the good rival or non-rival?

Is it excludable or non-excludable?

What is the product? Is the product the code, or is it something more than that static, stateless piece of code?

And what is the need/want? Is the need/want the code, or is it something else?

Further -

Take a huge endevour, such as Linux. No company might have attempted this by themselves. The profit each one could have nabbed is less than the development cost. But by colluding, they can, and in doing so avoid their monopoly vendors.

Interesting points.

I feel a post addressing these might shed some light. And expect wildly different answers for different types of open source project.