Big commercial firms driving open source takeup?

The adoption of open source software is being driven by increased involvement by big commercial tech firms such as Microsoft and IBM, a study has claimed.

Open source is no longer just project based and developer driven, but increasingly involves vendors and their software, the report by analyst firm Saugatuck Technology suggested.

Attracted by the lower costs and quicker development times, commercial software vendors have started to use open source developments in their own products, the report said, leading to many developer communities being heavily influenced by software vendors such as IBM, Microsoft, SAP and other leaders.

It has also lead to more enterprises using open source, to the point that its influence on business IT is becoming increasingly hard to measure without considering the commercial side.

“It’s safe to say that open source software is not what anyone thought it was, or would be,” said Bruce Guptill, Saugatuck's managing director and the study’s lead author.

While the increasing commercialism of open source software might bother some, the report suggested that its increasing use by big name software firms such as Microsoft shows that the open source development model has much to offer.

“Open source’s rampant commercialisation has accelerated its adoption and change well beyond what most IT executives and software industry executive ever perceived or predicted,” Guptill added.

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