Hey, just seeing this thread now. Agreed!
We've started a year ago and have done probably just 10% of what is needed to really get to Salesforce.
We need (1) a flexible data model, (2) a flexible layout, (3) code execution.
We've done (1) but have yet to do (2) and (3) this year.
Next step of the plan is to let people build and share apps that leverage those 3 blocks, that's where open source will really shine!
Can you elaborate on what "a flexible layout" means in this context? Is this data layout, i.e. serialization format(s)? UI layouts for displaying values in the data model? Something else?
(We too are in the "let people execute their code on our servers" space; providing a flexible data model seemed to have been key)