Let's look at open source software using a real-world example. To me, the FreeDOS Project will always be the first example I look to, so I'll use that. It should speak to the commitment of the open source software community that FreeDOS continues under active (if slow) development 15 years after it was conceived. How has FreeDOS held the interest of its users? Because FreeDOS embodies the important qualities that an open source project must possess in order for it to succeed.
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FreeDOS is the way software should be - even though DOS is no longer mainstream, with FreeDOS people still have access to the assembler and the code to make any modifications they need to support their legacy systems. I've still got a few copies of ancient GCC compilers and some now rather dated Linux kernels. Some people even resurrected truly ancient versions of GCC and Linux (from over 15 years ago) just to see if they can still do a build on a modern machine. (Of course they can.)