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Business Considers Open Source on Par with Commercial Software

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the about-time dept.

quad4b writes "At the International Conference on COTS-based Software Systems in Spain last week, representatives from organizations such at the Software Engineering Institute (remember the CMM), National Research Council of Canada and the European Software Institute discussed the inclusion of Open Source Software for the first time on the conference agenda. COTS software includes stuff like commercial operating systems, desktop software, and ERP systems among others. The conference examined best practices for integrating these pre-built components in systems development efforts. They conceded that open source software is essentially no different from commercially built software and that both types have their risks in terms of supportability and security. (what opponents of OSS say is its weakness) Interestingly enough, a senior representative of IBM was present and discussed with some of us, over lunch, how IBM is determined to move to an open desktop based on Linux and OpenOffice within about a year."

8 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. That's funny... by Chordonblue · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I thought I'd read that IBM wasn't interested in OpenOffice - at least for their own use and that they were going down a different path. Go figure. I guess it shows how OOo has really matured lately - 2.0 is indeed really looking good.

    At any rate, it's always been my opinion that OSS programs can only get better when people are forced to USE them. When we see IBM forcing their employees to go down that road, I have no doubt that we will see some positive improvements in the way these programs operate.

    Years ago, Atari sold a line of personal computers and tried to promote them for business use by porting programs like Visicalc. Later it leaked out that all of Atari's corporate machines were PC's. No doubt this was true. There is a saying for this, it's called, 'Eating your own dog food'.

    --
    "...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
  2. Do accounting firms recognize Compierre? by winkydink · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Some countries require that one's acounting system (subset of ERP) to be certified. Has Compierre met this requirement anywhere to date? Do the Big 4 in the US recognize that it has the proper controls?

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

  3. What are these institutes? by October_30th · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Software Engineering Institute (remember the CMM), National Research Council of Canada and the European Software Institute

    Uh... so, at least for us who are not in the software business but are interested in OSS anyway, it would be nice to know how much influence these institutes actually wield. Are they really "the business" as the subject let's us to believe or something else?

    --
    The owls are not what they seem
  4. What is this? by Otter · · Score: 3, Interesting
    OK, I read the CMU COTS site, and their overview and still have no idea what the term means. (Some consolation is that the submitter himself, who seems to have attended the conference, doesn't seem to understand it either, judging from the assertion that there is "COTS software", not just software that can be implemented in a COTS approach.)

    Two things, though:

    1) This is hardly a declaration that "Business Considers..."

    2) There is a complete confusion of licensing ("open-source") with development practice ("commercially built").

    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
  5. Ouch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Software Engineering Institute (remember the CMM)

    Ouch

    If there's one thing everyone at SEI is tired of if the CMM thing.

    If you've ever met someone from SEI you've probably blurted out "Oh, the CMM people", and got a response "We do more than CMM!". I know I've done it, and got the impression that they're sick and tired of it

    Just something to keep in mind if you meet one of them. Of course, I still don't know what else they've done :)

  6. Haleluja ... by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 4, Interesting

    how IBM is determined to move to an open desktop based on Linux and OpenOffice within about a year.

    It's about time IBM took another whack at you know who .....

    Now let's hope this gets upgraded from the lowly status of a mere rumor to the lofty status of a fact and results in a flood of out-of-the-box fully Linux capable of Laptops. :-D

    --
    Only to idiots, are orders laws.
    -- Henning von Tresckow
  7. Makes sense with ERP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Most companies will pay multiples more in support than they ever do licensing run-time and source code. In some cases the out-of-the-box functionality is even less important than the support role since most ERP implementations are customized at some level. In many ERP cases, you are buying into a support relationship to run a critical aspect of your business. The actual software/platform is secondary.

  8. Re:Summary by rpozz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yes, you got a Troll mod.

    I don't think there will, as such be a "year of Linux on the desktop". It will slowly crawl its way in. Firstly, to corporate desktops running nothing other than a word processor and spreadsheet, and then it'll make its way to the 'average' home user who uses it at work.

    That's how Microsoft took over, anyway. Would be nice if they got screwed in exactly the same way. However, hopefully it doesn't totally take over, so we're all left with a choice of OS.