Rogers Cadenhead via Scripting News: "Every time commercial developers create an innovative new software category, as Netscape, UserLand Software and Pyra Labs did in weblogging and syndication, open source coders follow behind with software that makes it harder to earn a living in that niche."
Disclaimer: I'm a developer who writes niche software.
Overall I agree with Rogers, good open source software does make it harder to earn a living in a specific niche. But it's not all bad.
Many of the innovations introduced by Netscape, Userland and Pyra are now available to a much wider audience thanks to open source software.
Many Open Source projects have also brought competition that lead innovation in old markets, just look at Firefox vs IE. Even if Firefox isn't a revolutionary browser it forced Microsoft to speed up development of IE 7.
