@LaurenIpsum Yes, I agree that Scrivener has potential to be awesome. But my question was more, "Can I get all (or most) of Scrivener's awesome feature's in an open source version?"
And I can say that after an afternoon yWriter is making an awfully strong case. I even like the interface better.
I haven't used yWriter, so I can't offer an opinion on it. I can say that I felt like Scrivener took away every interface issue which I ever had with Microsquish Word. I feel like it's literally transparent between me and my work. Just getting the program unstuck me from writer's block.
Word's fine for short stories. But when you've got dozens of characters and locations and relationships and dynamics and yada yada yada ... you need something more ... substantial
yWriter, for me is (and this is based on one afternoon) is at least as good as scrivener at organizing all of the story elements. And it's open source, which is a personal plus.
KitFox, just watch a few episodes of Sherlock and try to imagine what someone oriented towards gentlemen might like to DO with Mr. Cumberbatch and that voice.