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Census started for enterprise open source use
Jay Lyman, December 12, 2007 @ 2:32 pm ETOpen source stack and support vendor OpenLogic has announced an effort that, with help from some other vendors, projects and communities, aims to better quantify open source software use in the enterprise.
The Open Source Census kicks off with an open source software tool from OpenLogic called OSS Discovery. Intended as a pluggable architecture for organizations to provide their own fingerprint rules and identify open source packages, OSS Discovery is licensed under the new Affero GPLv3 (AGPLv3) for open source SaaS. It can be downloaded from CollabNet, where the open source discovery tool is hosted.
Organizers say the census will come out in phases over the next six months, the first phase consisting of OSS discovery’s release and an invitation for open source developers, vendors and ISVs to join. The next phase, set for Q1 2008, will start the actual collection of data on open source software use.
As an analyst covering open source software and enterprise use of it, I appreciate the need. I myself have written about the challenge of measuring open source software use, and we’ve recently seen the skepticism held by some open source communities.
Here’s a chance for developers, vendors and corporate users of open source software to produce a more accurate picture of commercial use. We’ll surely be watching for some results next year.
Comments (10) Categories: Software
Jay,
Over at ebizQ’, we are also going to support this effort by Open Logic for the same reasons you suggest: addressing the challenge of measuring “free,” and the meeting the demand to produce a more accurate picture of the market.
But let’s be honest:
– We’ll never satisfy the skeptics you reference because in the immortal words of Jack Nicholson “they can’t handle the truth.” Every IDC or Gartner or 451 survey that doesn’t come out the way the skeptics like must have been bought and paid for by Microsoft.
– We’ll never get a truly accurate picture unless such a census is broadened to include all software, not just software licensed under a certain fairly limited set of terms and conditions (that is the three or four dozen open source software license options). I am not sure of my fourth grade math terminology but it will just give the skeptics more fodder if we only know the numberator but not the denominator
But I applaud OpenLogic. We have to start somewhere.
Dennis
Hi Dennis,
Be aware that it’s free as in “Freedom”. This is not necessarily a question of economics.
re: “Every IDC or Gartner or 451 survey that doesn’t come out the way the skeptics like must have been bought and paid for by Microsoft.”
Be aware that both IDC and Gartner are funded by Mr. Bill Gates. In last week’s podcast in the Register, it was also said that Steve Ballmer shouts at these analysts and restraints what they can say about Linux (through definitions). See the latest Open Season.
Thanks Dennis,
I’d agree that some of the skeptics will never be satisfied. However, much of the skepticism from the Linux community and the other issues I reference (that Linux and open source are unique and very different, therefore harder to measure with traditional means) are legitimate concerns. Things like this census effort will help to uniquely address and measure open source use and I’m anxious to see what comes of it.
Thanks also to Roy.
JL
Jay (also Matt),
If you haven’t a change to listen to the latest episode of Open Season, please consider it. The last segment (~40 mins) touches on the subject that I spoke about before, including measuring market share of GNU/Linux.
Take care.
[...] There is another new addition worth mentioning: Intended as a pluggable architecture for organizations to provide their own fingerprint rules and identify open source packages, OSS Discovery is licensed under the new Affero GPLv3 (AGPLv3) for open source SaaS. [...]
[...] Census started for enterprise open source use (The 451 Group) [...]
2 (at least) reasons for Entreprises to support this initiative :
- Being aware of “hidden” OSS in your IS helps you manage them more efficiently
- System Integrators can provide better support, focusing on real needs
[...] Census started for enterprise open source use [...]
[...] 17, 2008 @ 2:43 pm ET Much of the reaction from FOSS folks to news that Microsoft is joining the Open Source Census centers on concern that Microsoft is out to find open source users and what open source software [...]
[...] Census started for enterprise open source use (The 451 Group) [...]