Business Open Source Use Up 26% in One Year

CBR is reporting that open source use in the workplace is continuing to grow at an astonishing rate. Up 26% since last year, businesses are using 94 different open source tools to get the job done. "[OpenLogic's] breakdown of licenses for the top 25 packages found that Apache, not the GPL, is the most common license. 62% of the packages use Apache, 27% use some variant of GPL and 4% each use BSD, CPL, Eclipse, MPL and Perl licenses (since packages may be released under two or more licenses, percentages total to more than 100%).

Re:Business Open Source Use Up 26% in One Year

[sm62704]

If yestdrday's post was correct, 26% of .08%. Of course we're talking not just Linux here of course ;)

However, as I pointed ot then, it's impossible to measure OSS use. OSS use by businesses would be pretty damned inaccurate, but wouldn't be as "out of my orifice" as desktop Linux use.

Clemons (Twain for those who like pseudonyms) spoke of three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Licence use

[jonbryce]

Surely if most people use Apache, they also use something like php along with it? So why doesn't the php licence appear near the top of the list?

We use Postgresql everywhere now

[uuxququex]

After a lot of testing and benchmarking we moved our Oracle databases (OLTP and DWH) to Postgresql. We also looked at MySQL, by the way. Our production servers were migrated in August 2007 and so far everything has been very stable. It's too soon to really tell, but there is a feeling it is more stable than our previous Oracle setup.

Meanwhile, Microsoft adds $44 b debt burden

[christian.einfeldt]

Is it possible that Microsoft will come to regret paying a premium for a business position in an industry it has yet to master, despite extraordinary expenditures (on-line revenue generation). Looky at how much ground Microft must make up to catch Google:
Rank Search Engine Volume
1. www.google.com 65.98%
2. search.yahoo.com 20.88%
3. search.msn.com 5.33%
4. www.ask.com 4.14%

http://www.hitwise.com/datacenter/searchengineanalysis.php [hitwise.com]

Note that msn searches have declined despite significant investment by the borg in pumping up its performance. There is strong reason to believe that Microsoft will not be able to tie its Yahoo properties to its Microosft Windows and Microsoft Office monopolies, and there is not a single one of Microsoft's properties that have succeeded to drive significantly scaled revenue unless it is tied to the Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office monopolies. Halo was a huge seller, but them Microsoft sold off the Bungie, the creator of Halo, on October 1, 2007 after milking the cow dry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungie_Studios [wikipedia.org]

Microsoft took a $1 billion hit on the X-box:

http://www.news.com/Microsoft-to-extend-Xbox-360-warranty,-take-1-billion-hit/2100-1014_3-6195058.html [news.com]

The X-box was wildy outsold by Wii. MSNBC is popular but not a huge money maker. There is simply nothing outside the Microsoft Windows / Microsoft Office monopoly that shows signs of supporting Microsoft's stock is down 6.35% at the moment on the day, despite the Yahoo announcement. MSFT's stock is trading at $30.51, meaning that it is right back down in the same dolldrums where it has been since Q3 2003 , with no intervening splits!

There are lots of analysts talking about a glut of Vista machines, and wondering if CompUSA's bk might be the canary in Microsoft's coal mine. Microsoft's recent report of a 67% increase on its net reflects ADVANCE SALES of Vista licenses which Microsoft imposes on its vendors. If its vendors are overstocked with Vista machines, you wonder how much more Microsoft can cram down the pipeline in coming quarters.

In the meantime, Linux and Unix boxes have been selling very well on Amazon.com and swept all the categories for Amazon for 2007. From a recent story on /.'s fp:

http://linux.slashdot.org/linux/07/12/29/1959244.shtml [slashdot.org]
"Computers and handheld devices running default GNU Linux or Unix OSes have swept Amazon's 'best of' list for 2007, according BusinessWire.com for 28 December 2007. Best selling computer? The Nokia Internet Tablet PC, running Linux. Best reviewed computer? The Apple MacBook Pro notebook PC. Most wished for computer? Asus Eee 4G-Galaxy 7-inch PC mobile Internet device, which comes with Xandros Linux pre-installed. And last, but not least, the most frequently gifted computer: The Apple MacBook notebook PC."

Sure, MSFT is powerful, but with this Yahoo acquisition, they are taking on premium-weighted debt, and it really raises a question as to whether that asset will justify the premium. Yahoo has been declining, and it is not clear that the mere acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft will succeed where Microsoft has failed in all of their other non-Windows-Office monopoly. That is the $44 billion dollar question, IMHO.

Re:Business Open Source Use Up 26% in One Year

[TheRaven64]

I suspect their numbers for BSD and MIT licenses are far too low too. Did they check the about boxes on all of the closed-source software to see if it included any BSDL code?

Linux actually is the most popular OS

[flyingfsck]

Well, Asus alone plans to sell about 50% more Eee PCs (5 million) than Apple sells Macs (3 million) in 2008. So this is the year when Linux desktop sales may equal or exceed Linux server sales. If you count all Linux devices, then Linux is actually the most popular OS ever, with about 300 million Linux devices sold each year. If we assume a typical life of 5 years for embedded devices routers and cell phones, then there should be at least 1.5 billion Linux devices out there, compared to about 600 million Windows devices.

Re:We use Postgresql everywhere now

[stoolpigeon]

Nice. Are you doing any kind of replication? How about partitioning? If so did you do it in house or hire somebody to help out with that. I haven't worked with Postgres in about 4 years - so I've lost touch just a bit with what's been happening there.
 
And are the apps using that back-end all custom or is there commercial stuff that can use Postgres? I'm especially interested in that on the warehouse side.

Re:Business Open Source Use Up 26% in One Year

[The Anarchist Avenge]

I work on the factory floor of a screen printing company, and I always get a kick out of seeing the OO.o icon in the start menu on the factory computers. Apparently my employers didn't want to shell out the license fees to microsoft for 80+ computers so that they could use Word maybe once or twice a week.

Re:Business Open Source Use Up 26% in One Year

[nschubach]

At my workplace, they approved a few different open source applications, FlashDevelop for the eLearning Flash content, Audacity, and Eclipse for some of the Web development. I'm sure there were a couple others. Though, I somehow don't think these types of software are counted in the OP survey or I'd think it would be a higher number.

Re:We use Postgresql everywhere now

[StormReaver]

"It's too soon to really tell, but there is a feeling it is more stable than our previous Oracle setup."

That's been my experience, too. We've been using PostgreSQL in mission-critical capacities for years (our revenues depend on it), and it hasn't let us down yet. Oracle, on the other hand, has been rather...unpredictable.