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Posted on 07/17/2005 1:20:38 PM PDT by N3WBI3
Price isn't the driver of the decision to use open source software, according to a report by Evans Data.
The Santa Cruz, Calif.-based IT market research firm released Open Source Vision on Wednesday, a qualitative report focused on the business of open source software (OSS).
While the lower cost of OSS is an important factor, it isn't the deciding factor, said Evans Data COO John Andrews. The survey said cost was in the top five decision criteria across small businesses to enterprises.
"Everyone in the industry is conditioned to pay for value," he said. "People see different value points in the open source model, i.e., they don't mind paying for service and support. They don't really want to pay for software."
Stacey Quandt, principal of the IT analysis firm Quandt Analytics, agreed. "Many users gravitate toward [open source] or consider it because of the perception of lower cost," she said. "But, when someone chooses open source software, they're choosing it based on technical requirements."
Besides, Quandt added, "software costs are a small percentage of an overall IT budget. The largest part of the IT budget is usually staffing, not software."
Quandt agreed that the market perception has changed. "People are using not just the operating system," she said. "Customers are looking at application servers like Jboss or Gluecode. It's definitely moving up the stack.
Andrews said that for a large segment of the companies Evans talked to, OSS technologies and tools have matured, and issues of stability or performance have been resolved.
John Koenig, principal of Riseforth, a consulting service for software vendors, said many software developers and end users are attracted to a different kind of free. "They have the ability to do what they want with it: Put it anywhere you want, change it if you want -- and sell it if you want, in a lot of cases," he said.
Among software developers, Evans Data has found a rising trend toward including open source modules. While 38.1 percent said they used OSS modules in their applications in Spring of 2001, in the most recent survey, 56.2 percent said they had.
Andrews said enterprise adoption of OSS is accelerating. "Over the past year, we've seen a higher adoption curve than we've seen in past reporting periods," he said. In large part, he believes, that's due to the fact that some enterprises have standardized on open source products.
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Screw it up beyond all recognition if you want....
Sorry, I can't see users being able to tweak the code as being a plus.
"software costs are a small percentage of an overall IT budget. The largest part of the IT budget is usually staffing, not software."
But if you want to speak of users its not just the tweaking of code you get with opensource. YOU never have to worry about a subscription model for software (which has been floated by various closed source companies like Microsoft and Sun) where one day you need to resubscribe rather than jut outright own the software that you use.
"Sorry, I can't see users being able to tweak the code as being a plus."
Just the other day I bought a new motherboard. I run Linux and this motherboard's manufacturers release drivers for Linux. Unfortunately, the drivers are not up-to-date with the current version of the software and simply will not work. I merely take the source code, spend about 45 minutes recoding a portion (including debugging and test times) and viola, I am running the latest software. No calling the manufacturer, no complaining, no sitting around waiting for the drivers to get made. Nope, a little time, a little skill and it just works.
I have had problems where I have had to just wait under closed sources solutions. My ATI card on my laptop is one that comes to mind.
Oh, for those who are wondering, I have a working sk98lin driver for Marvell's 88E8053 gigabit ethernet for the newer Linux kernels (mine is 2.6.13-rc3). Will try to get a patch out later this week if time permits.
"Sorry, I can't see users being able to tweak the code as being a plus."
I feel the same way about cars. Why should a car's owner be able to fiddle with its engine? He MUST take it to the dealer for any modification, otherwise he is just messing it up. And don't get me started on the proliferation of mechanics out there that could make an engine run improperly. Mechanics make cars run into other cars and cars that don't work properly. I don't even know why they sell cars with hoods that drivers or these 'mechanics' can open.
/white-hot sarcasm
Although an MS proponent, and have been for years, it is at this point that I will begin a serious move away from Windows.
I have no interest in resubscribing my software every year or whatever.
Yea I just wanted to throw sun in there because I dont want this to be a bash MS fest. Sun, MS and others would love to let you rent their software..
Yeah, like no company has ever shipped code that was already screwed up.
And no company has ever discontinued support for a product that will penalize businesses, requiring them to invest lots of dollars to upgrade.
Sorry, I can't see users being able to tweak the code as being a plus.
Fortunately, lots and lots of OSS developers disagree with you.
Of course, why have someone pay for something once when you can force them to buy it over & over again.
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