Open Sources | Rodrigues & Urlocker » Open Source Businesses Hitting Their Stride

November 27, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Open Source Businesses Hitting Their Stride

TAGS: Open Source

From my conversations with various open source companies, it looks like most are doing very well and headed into a strong end-of-year finish in Q4. While the cost savings are a key driver in adoption, open source is no longer considered as "good enough" when you don't have budget. In fact, I'm seeing a lot of cases where companies are chosing open source because of significant technical advantages in the offerings. Usually this comes down to better performance, ease of use, and scalability.

Part of this is due to the open source development model, but part of the advantage here may be because open source software has less "bloat" than legacy closed source products and usually a more modular architecture.

You could argue that these advantages are not inherent in the open source model. But I think that the open source model does lead to a more modular approach. Modularity makes it easier for people to contribute and customize the software to their needs. Similarly, the business model of open source companies is not focused on annual upgrade cycles. So there's less push to add unneeded features.

Of course, since open source does not always have all the features, you still need to make sure that your needs are met. But in my view, if your needs are within the mainstream, open source solutions typically do a better job. Better and cheaper.

Posted by Zack Urlocker on November 27, 2007 10:47 AM

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