The open-source software “phenomenon” extends far beyond Linux, and is “gaining enormous momentum,” IDC reports. Following a recent survey of over 5,000 developers in 116 countries, IDC has concluded that open-source software represents “the most significant all-encompassing and long-term trend that the software industry has seen since the early 1980s.”

In its research, IDC found the use of open source beyond Linux to be “pervasive,” spanning nearly three-fourths of organizations and hundreds of thousands of projects. The market research firm says it expects that open source will ultimately “play a role in the life-cycle of every major software category, and will fundamentally change the value proposition of packaged software for customers.”

The results of the study indicate that open-source software is currently being used by 71 percent of developers worldwide, according to IDC. Additionally, open-source software software is “in production” at 54 percent of the surveyed developers' organizations. Furthermore, half the surveyed developers said that the use of open-source in their organizations is increasing.

IDC offered the following additional observations relating to the proliferation of open-source software:

• Over the next ten years, open source will extract a toll on the industry in the low double digits, percentage wise, led by vicious price competition
• Price effects are a less important impact of open source adoption than the effect of open source on the entire life-cycle of software invention and innovation
• Despite the proliferation of open source license forms, only three business models are important from an industry and an individual vendor success point of view: the software revenue model, the public collective model, and the service broker model
• Competitive success among vendors' open source markets will be determined by a different set of core competencies than those required to invent and market a new product

“Although open source will significantly reduce the industry opportunity over the next ten years, the real impact of open source is to sustain innovations in mature software markets, thus extending the useful life of software assets and saving customers money,” explained Dr. Anthony Picardi, senior vice president of Global Software Research at IDC.

“As business requirements shift from acquiring new customers to sustaining existing ones, the competitive landscape will move towards costs savings and serving up sustaining innovations to savvy customers, along with providing mainstream software to new market segments that are willing to pay only a fraction of conventional software license fees. Open source software is ultimately a resource for sustaining innovators,” Picardi concluded.

Further information about IDC's study, “Open Source in Global Software: Market Impact, Disruption, and Business Models,” is available here.

 
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