For an average user who wants to be able to back-up their DVD collection with the least amount of hassle and with the highest rate of success, K9Copy simply isn't going to come anywhere close to the closed-source, commercial solutions available for the Windows platform.

This is that same old argument. As far as I can see, K9Copy is the *only* solution for ripping DVDs in *nix. So, there is no competition, and even if there were, what is "competition" when it isn't based on the livelihood of the product and development teams involved?

To wit, there are about a dozen different solutions for ripping DVDs and BluRays on Windows platforms. Each one is proprietary, and each is competing commercially for sales against all of the others. So it is a tremendously competitive arena for software development where there is a pressing drive for each vendor to constantly support the *best* solutions on the market. Updates to address new encryption and protection schemes are constantly worked on, because if you let your competition get out ahead of you, they'll start *selling* more product than you do. So, a hot new anticipated title like Marvel's Avengers comes out and it is heavily protected. Those that weren't prepared for this protection have obtained the disk and figured out how to defeat the protection and made an update available within a matter of days.

On K9Copy you've got a team of developers who probably have an attitude like this, if my experience with FOSS is any indication -

"K9Copy is FOSS and is provided at no cost to you. We all have day jobs, and our development team consists of a group of dedicated and passionate developers scattered across the globe who join and leave the project at their whim. If you are upset that we can't crack the latest DVD encryption, why don't YOU join and contribute to the project - or donate and support the project by providing us equipment and disks that need to be cracked."

I appreciate the idealism of the grass roots movement and the frustration that end-users want to treat FOSS projects with the same expectations that they have of huge, for-profit, closed-source publishing houses. But when I want to rip the latest DVD, the FOSS solution is going to run into logistical challenges that the closed-development solution will probably already have solved.

How much is *that* worth? Especially to the person who already has a Dell laptop of desktop with an included OEM version of a MS OS on it?

If you're one of the 1% outliers who has a DIY machine and skipped the commercial licensed OS for a FOSS OS solution, this is a cheap, workable solution... and it will do the job, more or less... for a LOT less money. I think it is a great thing that Linux is out there and it is making strides in more closely matching what commercial OS platforms deliver. But, it isn't on par with what commercial development cycles deliver - and this is a *great* real world example of that fact in action.

Maybe if it was a commercial, for profit, FOSS based DVD decrypter/copy app it could drive things... but my gut feeling is that Linux markets are like Android markets... it is hard to monetize the current user base. The user-base doesn't see the value in paying for things that they can "get for free" elsewhere.