I completely agree with dwildesnl. But, I think that you are anylizing things with the wrong state of mind. I do not think it is about the death of open source or open source taking over. I will admit that the money that open source projects have made are not even a drop in the bucket compared to the money that large corporations are raking in.

The biggest part that I see open source playing is bringing about a sense of balance and offering a good alternative to proprietary software.

This is a topic that should be seen with an open mind, I do not think that either way can be labeled "best," but I happen to make my personal choice to support open source, as do (I am certain) many in the perl community.

You have to recognize that open source is a somewhat powerful influence. NASA uses a flavor of Linux, many robotix companies have chosen to use Linux and open source software to drive their robots, many cellphones have even gone to using Linux and open source software. If we take a closer look at the internet, there FreeBSD and Apache have a strong presence.

To be honest, I would never wish for Microsoft or any of the other companies you mensioned to die. The relationship works both ways. Open Source drives proprietary to re-examine their practices, and proprietary drives open source forward to contiue fighting. About a year ago Microsoft contributed to the open soure world by opening the source to an XML parser of theirs. If you are interested, there is a book called "Free for all : how Linux and the free software movement undercut the high-tech titans" by Peter Wayner, and it does an interesting job of showing how open source was born and how it works.