George Weiss of the Gartner Group considers the issues associated with the adoption of open source software by corporate decision makers, and explains the evolutionary stages that can be expected during its maturation. Included, is an interesting graphical representation showing the expected pattern of advance of Linux between 1998 and 2005. Weiss writes . . .

“As the open-source movement continues to expand, IT decision-makers will face many new issues. Road maps, vendor strategies, accountability and value definitions will all need to be re-evaluated.”

“One of the most frequent questions from our clients is: When will Linux — and, by implication, all open-source software (OSS) — be ready for mission-critical production environments? Linux is receiving major coverage from the trade press, nearly all favorable, and is being strongly, and proactively, marketed by vendors. The debate about the merits of OSS is now reaching a feverish pitch, with Microsoft defending the commercial software model and arguing that intellectual property rights will be severely threatened by the licensing practices advocated by the Linux community. The advocates of OSS have, in return, hurled abuse at Microsoft, claiming that its practices have been harmful and damaging to the progress of IT and will no longer work in the new era of open, Internet-based infrastructures. Users, developers and software vendors are confused by the claims and counter-claims.”

“Gartner believes Linux is an evolution — not a revolution promoting new technology . . .”

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