@Blindsite2k I apologize for the flaming that I put you through, and would like to clarify your point of view before I haphazardly spout off accusations.
I hope that I’m safe in assuming that if the network succeeds, that you have no fear of the core devs abandoning the project. So that leaves the apps. Both closed source and open source.
###Open source apps
If an app is abandoned, regardless of it’s oversight, it is worthless. So that is the first issue to address: the abandonment of a given app.
With open source apps, one could argue that there is more of a chance that developer will abandon the project than there is with closed source apps. What’s there to prevent that? Well, nothing much. So yes, there is the chance that it will be abandoned. This increases significantly if the project is poorly governed, poorly written, and/or it has a poor community surrounding it. We will explore in greater detail the environment which open source projects create, but for now I’ll assume that you, same as me, have a general understanding thereof.
So yes, there’s always the chance that a situation like that might occur. I would not say, however, that it is inevitable, only that the existance of a functioning project is uncertain.
###Closed source
Closed source programs are another beast entirely. Unfortunately, closed source projects are typically sold on a per-usage basis. Fortunately those selling point of these programs are that they come with warranties and service contracts. In that case, the user is guaranteed that the program will stay updated and active for as long as the warranty and the service contract is active.
However, after the time period of the warranty and/or the service contract, there is no guarantee that the project will be continued. This differs from open source in the sense that you are assured that for the given time frame that there will undoubtedly be an actively maintained program.
To sum up this point, would you agree that even though the timing may be different, there is always uncertainty as to the continuation of any given piece of software?