Customers win from open source, regardless of whether they buy it.
In talking with some fellow open sourcerors the other day, a comment resonated with me:
Even when we lose a deal, we set a new bar on pricing and value. That's money out of our competitors' pockets, and a raised bar on customer expectations.
Absolutely true. If I lose a deal, I can guarantee that it wipes out $500K - $1.5M from my proprietary competition's top line even if they win the deal. Even when I lose, in other words, the customer wins. What's not to love?
Of course, there are many benefits to open source beyond a dramatically lower price, but one step at a time....