My first use of Open Source software was around 1997 when we had a need to have cheap X-Terminals to access Sun Sparc machines from other parts of the building other than in the cold machine rooms.
Commercial X software for testing was an expensive investment and standalone workstations were also not very nice in their support requirements but installing RedHat on an old beige-box PC were a viable low-cost option. This didn’t need anyone’s approval and they just did the job.
The rest of this story is history. GNU/Linux distributions have grown in leaps and bounds, and equally a number have been renamed, taken over or have gone bust but after this first decade of the 21st Century, Open Source software is still with us and there is no reasonable reason why this will not be with us at the start of the 22nd Century.
If the code you edit today is Open Source, well documented and maintainable then it has a good chance of outliving you. Now that is a legacy that is worthwhile to remember.