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Business Open Source Use Up 26% in One Year
CBR is reporting that open source use in the workplace is continuing to grow at an astonishing rate. Up 26% since last year, businesses are using 94 different open source tools to get the job done. "[OpenLogic's] breakdown of licenses for the top 25 packages found that Apache, not the GPL, is the most common license. 62% of the packages use Apache, 27% use some variant of GPL and 4% each use BSD, CPL, Eclipse, MPL and Perl licenses (since packages may be released under two or more licenses, percentages total to more than 100%).
Um, 26% of what?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Ah! Statistics!
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http://vancouvercondo.info
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Surely if most people use Apache, they also use something like php along with it? So why doesn't the php licence appear near the top of the list?
With the new PC's from Dell and other PC manufactures, not to mention wall mart selling out of cheap Linux PCs could we be seeing a tipping point here. Microsoft has countered (temporally), Linux in the developing world. But what would there response to the $199 PC be, can they afford to put some sort of operating system and office application on it! Can they afford not to.
Again with useless statistics! This will be spun so many ways - e.g. Wow, apache must be the better license since it is chosen by a large margin instead of reality that maybe the most common OS app used by these businesses is, wait for it...., Apache servers????
After a lot of testing and benchmarking we moved our Oracle databases (OLTP and DWH) to Postgresql. We also looked at MySQL, by the way. Our production servers were migrated in August 2007 and so far everything has been very stable. It's too soon to really tell, but there is a feeling it is more stable than our previous Oracle setup.
Is it possible that Microsoft will come to regret paying a premium for a business position in an industry it has yet to master, despite extraordinary expenditures (on-line revenue generation). Looky at how much ground Microft must make up to catch Google:
/.'s fp:
Rank Search Engine Volume
1. www.google.com 65.98%
2. search.yahoo.com 20.88%
3. search.msn.com 5.33%
4. www.ask.com 4.14%
http://www.hitwise.com/datacenter/searchengineanalysis.php
Note that msn searches have declined despite significant investment by the borg in pumping up its performance. There is strong reason to believe that Microsoft will not be able to tie its Yahoo properties to its Microosft Windows and Microsoft Office monopolies, and there is not a single one of Microsoft's properties that have succeeded to drive significantly scaled revenue unless it is tied to the Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office monopolies. Halo was a huge seller, but them Microsoft sold off the Bungie, the creator of Halo, on October 1, 2007 after milking the cow dry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungie_Studios
Microsoft took a $1 billion hit on the X-box:
http://www.news.com/Microsoft-to-extend-Xbox-360-warranty,-take-1-billion-hit/2100-1014_3-6195058.html
The X-box was wildy outsold by Wii. MSNBC is popular but not a huge money maker. There is simply nothing outside the Microsoft Windows / Microsoft Office monopoly that shows signs of supporting Microsoft's stock is down 6.35% at the moment on the day, despite the Yahoo announcement. MSFT's stock is trading at $30.51, meaning that it is right back down in the same dolldrums where it has been since Q3 2003 , with no intervening splits!
There are lots of analysts talking about a glut of Vista machines, and wondering if CompUSA's bk might be the canary in Microsoft's coal mine. Microsoft's recent report of a 67% increase on its net reflects ADVANCE SALES of Vista licenses which Microsoft imposes on its vendors. If its vendors are overstocked with Vista machines, you wonder how much more Microsoft can cram down the pipeline in coming quarters.
In the meantime, Linux and Unix boxes have been selling very well on Amazon.com and swept all the categories for Amazon for 2007. From a recent story on
http://linux.slashdot.org/linux/07/12/29/1959244.shtml
"Computers and handheld devices running default GNU Linux or Unix OSes have swept Amazon's 'best of' list for 2007, according BusinessWire.com for 28 December 2007. Best selling computer? The Nokia Internet Tablet PC, running Linux. Best reviewed computer? The Apple MacBook Pro notebook PC. Most wished for computer? Asus Eee 4G-Galaxy 7-inch PC mobile Internet device, which comes with Xandros Linux pre-installed. And last, but not least, the most frequently gifted computer: The Apple MacBook notebook PC."
Sure, MSFT is powerful, but with this Yahoo acquisition, they are taking on premium-weighted debt, and it really raises a question as to whether that asset will justify the premium. Yahoo has been declining, and it is not clear that the mere acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft will succeed where Microsoft has failed in all of their other non-Windows-Office monopoly. That is the $44 billion dollar question, IMHO.
26% is good but not "astonishing". In the technology world it's not uncommon for products to be adopted at the rate of hundreds of percent. 26% could be a fluke for all we know considering the small market share currently.
Perhaps the start of a recession (or recession talk) is leading to a second and third look at the question "could we get away with using FOSS software in this task?". Training costs are one thing. But, in a deep enough recession, people are looking to save their jobs. They'll learn whatever they are told to learn, and they'll do it on their own time (go read the FOSS community pages/wiki if need be). Those that can't, well, will be the first to be furloughed.
even 50% of a small number meens nothing.. so 26% ..hmm ok wow lots !
Not that i do not push open sorce myself.. old military background ,, linux for life..
but 26% of 1 is still nothing compared to Redmond stong hold..but ..
Its still moving forwards.. thats all we hoped for !
Education is a private matter between the person and the world of knowledge and experience, and has little to do with sc
I am in a "graduate" program where we frequently get projects that require photo manipulation, presentations, etc. They also require us to work in groups. Since not everyone is from my same company we don't always have access to the same software to collaborate. I've been using this as an excuse to introduce people to things like GIMP and OpenOffice. The appeal of a free program that gets the specific tasks done that we need is pretty compelling. I don't know how many of them pass this kind of information on, but I know a few of them have gotten hooked.
When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."
This may be a stretch, but after Microsoft Vista, I think the business community could be losing confidence in Microsoft's future. They might fear that if they use MS products, they could lose support and there would be no one left to assume liability.
I am with Bjarne on this one.
Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of the C++ programming language, claims that C++ is experiencing a revival and
that there is a backlash against newer programming languages such as Java and C#. "C++ is bigger than ever.
There are more than three million C++ programmers. Everywhere I look there has been an uprising
- more and more projects are using C++. A lot of teaching was going to Java, but more are teaching C++ again.
There has been a backlash.", said Stroustrup.
Well, Asus alone plans to sell about 50% more Eee PCs (5 million) than Apple sells Macs (3 million) in 2008. So this is the year when Linux desktop sales may equal or exceed Linux server sales. If you count all Linux devices, then Linux is actually the most popular OS ever, with about 300 million Linux devices sold each year. If we assume a typical life of 5 years for embedded devices routers and cell phones, then there should be at least 1.5 billion Linux devices out there, compared to about 600 million Windows devices.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
7-Zip, Firefox, PDFCreator, PuTTY, the list goes on and on.
When there are only four open source programs being used, it's pretty easy to get a fifth.
According to TFA it's the number of free software packages that's "up 26%", not business use of free software.
Bad submitter, bad!!!.
Bad editors, bad! Bad!
Caveat Utilitor
Oh, and everyone else making life rough for paying customers, and treating them like criminals.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
In the last year or two, I can't tell you how many times people have asked me where they could get a good deal on MS Office, only to have me mention OpenOffice as a free alternative and had it eagerly siezed upon.
It's strange, really. I'm like "You must need to open that spreadsheet file?" and they're like "It's an *.xls!" "Yess...why don't you try this out?" "It can open this file!?" "Probably" and then so far it's always been fine and they're quite elated not to have had to buy MS Office. I mean, it's not like they LIKE it, they're just USED to it.
I think it is only an issue for a relatively small percentage of users who used more advanced features that most people (including myself!) never, ever use.
expandfairuse.org
We are very, very reliant on OSS, so much so that the company would fold without them. All our servers are linux if possible (some apps require a MS server, i.e. quickbooks), we use python scripts (on windows WS) for many daily tasks, many of our GUI apps are wxPython, our project mangement/tracking system is a custom-made PHP/MySQL/Apache deal, most of our workstations use OO.o rather than MS Office (the execs have it though), the company website is on apache/PHP, our email system is Scalix on centOS. The only major part of our infrastructure which is propriatary is quickbooks, leadtools/delphi, OCR (abbyy) and some pretty specific scanning software -- simply because no equivalent _good_ OSS exists. Since leadtools/scanning software will only work on windows, all our workstations are XP, except mine which is Ubuntu.
While having someone like me who is very much into open source and pitch it whenever I can helps no doubt, the execs also understand that it lowers costs, gives better flexability and removes reliance on 3rd parties. We would probably be all open source if not for apps described above.
"It's easy to get really messy fuckin' code when you start building something big/complex."
Expected time to finish is 1 hour and 60 minutes.
don't get me wrong, I want it to happen, but it's wishful thinking
I'm no supporter of Microsoft, I don't like how it is run, but I don't want to see MS put out of business. Instead what I want to see is MS operating in a truly free market and not use it's monopoly position to harm competitors. They should instead compeat with better products.
FalconShould there be a Law?
This trend is great to see. Our latest generation of collaboration software, http://icecore.org/ is built on an open source project that takes advantage of other projects, including Hibernate, Liferay, Lucene, MySQL, openSUSE, and Tomcat. Consistent with the CBR report, adoption of the open source project we sponsor is accelerating in small and large enterprises. Educational institutions are helping lead the way.