Weakening Economy Good for Open Source
Experience has shown a weakening U.S. economy would be good for open source, as a shortage of cash is usually a major catalyst for innovation, particularly around open-source applications, Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu Linux, said at the annual Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco.
The presentation below summarizes the findings of the 2008 Future of Open Source survey led by North Bridge Venture Partners in partnership with Acquia, Ingres, SugarCRM, Sun and Ubuntu. The results were presented at the 2008 Infoworld Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco as part of a panel discussion led by Michael Skok, general partner at North Bridge Venture Partners.
Following are various key findings from the 2008 Future of Open Source survey:
- Approximately 81 percent of respondents feel the economy’s turbulence
is „good“ for open source software - Respondents revealed that the top three factors that make open source
software attractive include: lower acquisition and maintenance costs;
flexibility/access to libraries of community-developed code; and freedom
from vendor lock-in - More than 55 percent of respondents believe that in five years 25-50
percent of purchased software will be open source vs. proprietary - The Web Publishing/Content Management market is expected to be most
vulnerable to disruption by open source in the next five years - Respondents expect the Security Tools be least vulnerable to
disruption by open source in the next five years
Tags: open source
