Dirk Riehle: Open Source Economics - The Economic Motivation of. See here for a citable reference of this article and here for the original PDF. Open source software has changed the rules of the game, impacting significantly the economic behavior of stakeholders in the software ecosystem. In this new environment, developers strive to be committers, vendors feel pressure to produce open source products, and system integrators anticipate boosting profits.
The advent of open source software has produced more than lower software costs for users. It has also created major changes in the economic interaction among players in the software ecosystem. For many, open source embodies a specific approach to software development---even a lifestyle. But it's also sound business strategy. Open source software is typically free and comes with the source code needed to adapt it to users' needs. There are two types of open source software. Commercial open source is software that a for-profit entity owns and develops. 2.1 IT solutions demand curve Figure 1. Figure 2. The New Economics of Open Source in the Enterprise | Blogs | ITB. Like most economic statistics, the rise of open source in the enterprise is a trailing indicator. Right now, we have some pretty compelling anecdotal information, even though hard data is still amorphous.
Nevertheless, it seems like everywhere you turn IT executives are getting comfortable with open source software well beyond the operating system level. And the key factors driving that increased level of comfort are: Cost: Free is hard to resist in a down economy. And when the difference between doing a project and not doing it at all is the cost of commercial software, open source becomes the only choice. This is one of the reasons that you see IT services companies of all stripes embracing open source, because if the choice comes down to their fees or the cost of the software license, the commercial software is going to get tossed overboard. Quality: The simple fact of the matter is that the quality of open source software has improved dramatically. Economics of Open Source Meets Digital Learning - May 08.pdf (Ob.
The Economics Of Open Source Software Development: Jurgen Bitzer. Simple.pdf (Objet application/pdf)