Open source software adoption in enterprise businesses is surging, propelled by both the down economy and a desire to avoid "vendor lock." Within 5 years, open source could account for the majority of enterprise software.
That is what was suggested in a recent survey presented by Michael Skok at the Computerworld Open Source Business Conference last week. Titled "The Future of Open Source," the presentation revealed results of a survey of 450 respondents about their adoption and attitude toward open source software.
"Lower costs" are cited as the second most attractive feature of open source (compared to being in first place in previous surveys). But "freedom from vendor lock-in" became the top priority in this year's survey.
What this suggests is that more companies want to be in control of their software decisions, rather than letting vendors control those decisions (and costs) for them. Which makes the open source philosophy an increasingly good fit.