Open source
Having been an administrator, my job was to keep software updated and running. At the time the OS we used was just upgraded and many applications no longer worked. Of course you were on the phone with the vendor. The answer we got most was we have to wait an see what the OS vendor was going to do. That is not the answer students want to here when not being able use the software to get their class es done. One particular vendor had software I could fix if they would let me modify it. The application vendor threatened to sue my employer an me if any changes were made. Between a rock and a hard place. All was eventually worked out but quite a few students wanted to strangle the IT team. That really happens with proprietary software. With open source software in most cases it is not a problem. You can modify the source code to solve issues quickly and effectively. Most of all the major distros have source code repositories for just that. Also to consider: