Surveys Show Increase In OSS Popularity

segphault writes "Ars Technica takes a look at the results of two different surveys about open source software adoption." From the article: "The survey also addresses the most important question: what motivates organizations to adopt open source software? According to Optaros, cost savings is one of the most significant factors. Optaros says that companies with over US$1 billion annual revenue reported average savings of $3.3 million in 2004 as a result of open source technology, and companies with annual revenue between $50 million and $1 billion reported an average savings of $1.1 million."

Comments

cost of ownership

[dirvish]

Are the survey respondents taking cost of ownership into consideration? I see no mention of it in the article. Of course OSS is cheaper up front; but cost of ownership includes how much it costs to actually use the software. The real bargains are the OSS that is not only free up front, but also a better product than the alternatives (Apache comes to mind).

You'd think so, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

but reaching for peoples wallets will convince them much easier.

Yea, that's what I thought when I founded my company. I was providing consulting and integration services. I tried to present my company as advantageous over other because while labor for a Windows server was the same as a Samba server, there was a >$700 savings with Samba and in some cases the savings would have been in the tens of thousands. I thought that I would be "selling" a lot of Samba. Boy was I wrong.

One year out of the gate, I have "sold" no Samba servers. I have sold two dozen Windows and Netware servers but that's about it. In fact, the only Linux I have been able to "sell" have been specialty servers like spam/virus gateways and Rsync backups to supplement, not replace, tape backups.

So far, no one wants it even if it is free! Thank goodness desktop service remains strong. If it weren't for spyware and viruses, I would have folded six months ago.

Re:Money vs Reason - Money wins

[Gene77]

I agree. There is a healthy Darwinian struggle here toward which financial savings factor.

I work for a private graduate school of about one thousand students. We are not exceedingly wealthy. That is to say that finances are a big deal around here. Over time, we found ourselves continually in the position of "We have the skill and talent to do this, but we cannot afford it."

Over time, through the influence of myself and others, along with judicious hiring practices, we now have 50% of the machines in our server room running Debian. It is used for database servers running PostgreSQL (to which we also successfully moved some legacy Informix data stores), to our web servers running Apache/PHP5, to various networking devices (VLANs get complex with supporting some student housing, internet cafes, open wireless, library access, student lab, classrooms and administration), to proxy servers, and to miscellany.

So many of these projects were implementations that we sketched, scoped, vendor-checked, and found that we are saving tens of thousands a year (which is a lot to us). Open Source solutions closed the gap between "can do" and "can't do" in many situations.

Additionally, there is a lot of positive energy among our technologists regarding Open Source software. Not everyone wants to be a vendor extension. This team is engaged and optimistic about many complex challenges. This has been a boon for our productivity since our project lists keep growing.

I used to work in a larger company (a global HR firm of 12,000 employees at the time) doing revenue and HR forecasting software development, as well as managing projects and nearly 20 developers. I keep in touch with them and I see my old coworkers propping up silent Linux clusters that just work and work and work. I mention this, because I can empirically verify that the gains of Open Source scale well in both directions organizationally.

Re: Free...Exactly What It's Worth

[mpapet]

Unfortunately, "free" carries a negative connotation in the business world: worthless.

The smart thing to do is charge a f*sking fortune for something that is free. Make it a status symbol/exclusive/BS. The well-known red hat and IBM are perfect examples.

Sounds crazy, but it's true. As you understand Linux is an **unbelievable** value for the SMB. Lack of cheap MCSA's makes "free" sound like a whole lot of trouble.

Related story: I've got the small company I work for running linux for some things. My boss (Not a PHB) *still* does not want to convert the Windows file server that requires way more baby sitting than the busier linux box. It's only a file server for gosh sake!

Re:Took them long enough

[WindBourne]

Not really. When Windows took over the desktop, it took them some odd 15 years. And they were not competing against a monopoly in that space. So, if Linux takes 15 years going against a company like MS, then it is a very impressive situation. I am also guessing that OSS will accelerate in the take over over the next 3 years.