Study shows governments' open-source embrace
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Dozens of government proposals arise, but never get off the ground.
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In an article published today for CIO Magazine, Jet Propulsion Laboratory software engineer D. J. Byrne writes that the cultural synergies between open source software developers and space technology engineers have made it possible for his team to execute complex software projects without the hassle of all that government oversight and procurement paperwork.
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Consortium of companies working on software interoperability cites Europe's abundant open-source projects.
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Trust and connections among those in the open-source community are key to the process, Linux creator Linus Torvalds says.
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LONDON -- Open source software proponents received a potential boost from the U.K. government on Thursday with a release of a report citing the well-documented advantages on the server side, but also growing maturity on the desktop front.
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Gone are the days when free software could blithely ignore what was happening in the world of proprietary code.  The two approaches are now inextricably intertwined as more and more users and companies choose to run both.  One paradoxical consequence of this is that as free software becomes more widely deployed, Microsoft's impact on it becomes greater.  Against this background, a recent shift in Microsoft's public statements about open source assumes a particular importance.
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Three Illuminata research notes take a look at some of the intersections between cloud computing, the way operating systems are designed, and open source.
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The open-source computer is inexpensive and actually looks good.
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Open source software companies have gotten a lot of buzz, but most have yet to prove their staying power.
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Interoperability is the great challenge facing the open-source movement.
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Switiching to open source software could save Â£600 million, says the shadow chancellor.
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This week, UK government agencies got the go-ahead to use Linux and other open source products in a report published by the UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC).
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Adoption of standalone open source software is accelerating, say researchers.
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Open-source collaboration software vendor depends on its partners to compete.
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Educational institutions will increase spending on open-source software and services over the next few years, but that doesn&#39;t mean proprietary software will be left in the dark, according to a new report covering 14 countries.Market research company Datamonitor predicts that primary and secondary schools and universities will spend $489.9 million on open-source software by 2012, up from $286.2 million now.The figure is based on interviews with vendors and school officials in the U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Australia, India, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, Norway, Sweden, and Italy, said Justin Davidson, associate analyst at Datamonitor who covers education technology.The spending estimate covers operating systems and learning management systems, such as software used to make webcasts of lectures available online, plus maintenance and support.The figure represents a small portion of the $9 billion overall educational IT spending by those countries, but shows growing interest.&quot;I don&#39;t think we expected it [the figure] to be so much,&quot; Davidson said. Beyond 2012, however, Datamonitor expects open-source spending to flatten.Educators said they&#39;re attracted to open-source software since they feel they have more control over how applications are developed, Davidson said.&quot;Some institutions feel they will get a better return on their investment from open-source software,&quot; he said.Institutions were also aware that although the software licenses are free, maintenance and support can often make open-source offerings just as expensive as proprietary programs, Davidson said.A small minority of schools have opted for open-source for &quot;philosophical&quot; reasons, such as a desire not to give their money to a commercial software company. However, most decisions to use open-source were strategic, he said.Other drivers for choosing open source are increasing government interest. Certain regions in India, as well as the French government, have encouraged schools to use open-source software, especially operating systems, Davidson said.Interest in open-source software also seemed to be prompted by dissatisfaction expressed by some schools with Blackboard, a major provider of enterprise educational software and services, Davidson said.In 2005, Blackboard bought WebCT, another educational software company, for $180 million. Blackboard&#39;s share of the market grew to more than 70 percent, Davidson said. Concerns remain within schools over the dominance of one company in the market, he said.But Blackboard&#39;s software has an appeal for institutions with smaller budgets that can&#39;t fund developers to build their own open-source applications, Davidson said.It shows proprietary and open-source software will complement each other, depending on the needs of the schools, Davidson said.&quot;It&#39;s not the death of proprietary software,&quot; he said.&#160;
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Travelers on the road from proprietary to open source software won&#39;t be driving on an Interstate. Enterprise open source deployments are still uncommon enough that companies
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Open source has many good uses.  Beating up one's competitors shouldn't be the primary one.