I think this was one reason for PHP and MySQL's initial success. There were simply a lot of useful open source end user projects using it (WordPress, phpMyAdmin, MediaWiki, Drupal, SugarCRM, phpBB, Gallery, Magento) . Say what you will about the coding style and issues with these applications, but millions of people built real businesses on top of them. And I don't remember feeling like I was falling behind if I didn't write my application an entirely new way every few months. I was mostly working on solving a problem for a paying customer.