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Open Source Growing At an Exponential Rate

Posted by Soulskill on from the gaining-ground dept.

sipmeister writes "Two computer scientists who work for enterprise software giant SAP have shown that open source is growing at an exponential rate. Not only is the code base growing exponentially, but also the number of viable projects. Researchers Amit Deshpande and Dirk Riehle analyzed the database of open source startup ohloh.net and looked at the last 16 years of growth in open source. They consistently got the best fit for the data using an exponential model. Relating this to open source market revenue, Desphande and Riehle conclude that open source is eating into closed source at a non-trivial pace."

5 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. Viral License? by phantomcircuit · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So the accusation that the GPL is a viral license wasn't just a bunch of bullshit?

  2. Competition by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Relating this to open source market revenue, Desphande and Riehle conclude that open source is eating into closed source at a non-trivial pace.

    Welcome to competition. Open Source tends to cover the areas where software is well established and should be commoditized. As much as we'd all like to keep charging $250 a copy for a library to unzip files, technology marches on. Commercial providers of technology must work harder to win the dollars of their customer. And I for one think the results can only be positive.

    What's particularly interesting to note is that web services are the latest craze in software development. The idea is that the value is not so much in the software itself, but in the service provided. This means that both using and supporting Open Source development can help these companies deliver real value to their customers rather than twiddling their thumbs on problems that are long-solved.
    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  3. Re:What is growing? by AKAImBatman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    - FireFox
    - Apache Webserver
    - Derby Database
    - Sun Java Server Application Server (aka Glassfish)
    - PDFBox
    - TortoiseCVS
    - OpenPortal
    - Netbeans
    - Rhino
    - GWT
    - POI
    - PostgreSQL
    - MySQL
    - Solaris
    - BCEL
    - ANT
    - FOP
    - Rome (RSS)
    - FFMPEG
    - VLC
    - FileZilla
    - GIMP
    - DOSBox
    - QEMU
    - Cygwin
    - JHDL
    - Bouncy Castle
    - jTDS
    - PHP
    - GCC

    The list above is an off-the-top-of-my-head list of Open Source projects that I use and rely upon on a regular basis. It has grown significantly over the years, going from a relatively small list of key programs to permeating nearly every aspect of my day-to-day life and work. If you did a similar inventory of the OSS products you use, I wouldn't be surprised if you came up with a similarly growing list.

    So while the article may not answer all your questions, some answers can be found by just looking closer to home. :-)

    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  4. Re:What is growing? by pembo13 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Let me pad your list a bit with things of the top of my head

    • Subversion
    • Linux
    • MythTV
    • OpenOffice.org
    • Thunderbird
    • Python
    • Gtk
    • Qt
    • SQLite
    • Audacity
    • VLC
    • GCC
    • Eclipse
    • KDE
    • KDEvelop
    • Notepad++
    • Samba
    • NFS
    • OpenSSH
    • Pidgin
    • Inkscape

    And thats just the stuff I use regularly.

    --
    "Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
  5. Re:I for one by smittyoneeach · · Score: 4, Interesting

    But if everyone is an overlord, who are the serfs?
    Or is that the real point?

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear