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Open Source Software is not a Dirty Word Anymore
Free as in Freedom
“Open Source is not a dirty word anymore.” That’s how Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Digital Agenda, started her videoblog on the importance of Open Source Software (OSS) for Europe.
According to Neelie Kroes, the attitude in Europe is changing and a lot of companies realise that investing in Open Source Software, can make a nice profit. They don’t only offer good value for money but furthermore, they have the advantage of lower switching costs and lower dependence. Not only private companies are looking at the importance of OSS; also public administrations consider its advantages. For example, the German town Munich, uses the OS Linux for its administration.
To encourage this use even further, the European Commission supports projects across Europe. For example the NOIV-project (=Nederland Open in Verbinding) which wants to encourage OSS in every public department on its own as well as bringing public administrations in The Netherlands working closer together. Or, what’s called with a fancy word: interoperability.
But does this all really work? Do large companies actually realize that the open source equivalent of Office is as good as the MS version? According to Gartner, a worldwide analysis company for IT solutions, 85% of IT companies use OSS (research of 2008). They expect by 2012, that it will have risen even more, to over 95%! Furthermore, businesses start to realize its advantages and refuse to go back to licensed software. For example, many find Linux far more reliable than the Operating System of Microsoft (Windows) or Apple (Leopard) for operating server supplies.
Whilst the change predicted by Gartner may not come as fast as anticipated, the trend has definetely pissed off a few big players of the IT industry, such as the CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, who had claimed, back in the days that OS applications are like cancer which contaminate all other software with their hippie GNU/GPL rubbish. That was in 2001.