Open Source Software Is Costing Vendors $60 Billion (Warning Nerd Content)

Waffles · Post by **Waffles** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:06 pm

http://www.cnet.com/8301-13846_1-9920202-62.html

I am trying to get my hands on this new report from the Standish Group that says that open source is decimating the traditional software market.

Open Source software is raising havoc throughout the software market. It is the ultimate in disruptive technology, and while to it is only 6% of estimated trillion dollars IT budgeted annually, it represents a real loss of $60 billion in annual revenues to software companies," said Jim Johnson, Chairman, The Standish Group International, Boston, MA

If the $60 billion is true (and I would assume based on Standish's five years of research it is) then we have been dramatically underestimating the impact open source is having on the traditional vendors. We've known there is a effect, and now we finally have some numbers (and $60 billion is a whopper.)

MySQL Marten Mickos has often spoken of "taking a $10 billion market and making it a $3 billion market." If you consider that open source has taken out $60 billion of traditional software revenues there will be a bloodletting in the proprietary world soon enough.

It's a great time to be an open source company.

I personally am not a fan of the open source business model, but it seems to be doing very well.

Phate · Post by **Phate** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:09 pm

Sucks to be the vendors. I like it, because people can help out and make it better. Oh well, only thing i use thats open source is Firefox.

rickles8099 · Post by **rickles8099** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:18 pm

Phate;110590 wrote:Sucks to be the vendors. I like it, because people can help out and make it better. Oh well, only thing i use thats open source is Firefox.

but the problem with that is there is no uniform documentation nor uniform way of doing the coding which makes troubleshooting a problem a big problem.

Waffles · Post by **Waffles** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:21 pm

rickles8099;110591 wrote:but the problem with that is there is no uniform documentation nor uniform way of doing the coding which makes troubleshooting a problem a big problem.

Thats what most developers preach. STANDARDS STANDARDS STANDARDS. I know if we let every coder do it his "way" we would have a clusterfuck of spaghetti code, then if that person ever left, someone else has to com in to fix it. Most likely that person would be forced to write more spaghetti code if any features were added.

rickles8099 · Post by **rickles8099** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:27 pm

btlfedgolf;110592 wrote:Thats what most developers preach. STANDARDS STANDARDS STANDARDS. I know if we let every coder do it his "way" we would have a clusterfuck of spaghetti code, then if that person ever left, someone else has to com in to fix it. Most likely that person would be forced to write more spaghetti code if any features were added.

but before they fix it, they would have to learn what the guy did and then change it.

i would think though, with all the people able to write opensource, that they would be able to create their own opensource standards.

Waffles · Post by **Waffles** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:31 pm

rickles8099;110594 wrote:but before they fix it, they would have to learn what the guy did and then change it.

i would think though, with all the people able to write opensource, that they would be able to create their own opensource standards.

There was a push for open source standards for a while, but the effort kinda died off once they realized the complexity involved. that was back in the mid to late 90s. Most open source apps out there have a specific group of paid developers that take submissions from the guy working for free, and if it works will mold it into their code using the internal standards.

GTI-Guy · Post by **GTI-Guy** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:41 pm

And microsoft is so much better?? Vista is a never ending stream of digital duct tape fixes

Check out Ubuntu.com ... it's what I use at home, it files, and with open office, feels very microsoft gui wise ... a TON of effective documentation

Microsoft's days are numbered ... business are tired of the expensive upgrade cycles for software that increasingly trips on itself

rickles8099 · Post by **rickles8099** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:43 pm

GTI-Guy;110597 wrote:And microsoft is so much better?? Vista is a never ending stream of digital duct tape fixes

Check out Ubuntu.com ... it's what I use at home, it files, and with open office, feels very microsoft gui wise ... a TON of effective documentation

Microsoft's days are numbered ... business are tired of the expensive upgrade cycles for software that increasingly trips on itself

theres a guy at my work that preaches ubuntu.

Waffles · Post by **Waffles** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:45 pm

GTI-Guy;110597 wrote:And microsoft is so much better?? Vista is a never ending stream of digital duct tape fixes

Check out Ubuntu.com ... it's what I use at home, it files, and with open office, feels very microsoft gui wise ... a TON of effective documentation

Microsoft's days are numbered ... business are tired of the expensive upgrade cycles for software that increasingly trips on itself

Vista is the next ME, and that is all i have to say about that.

I use ubuntu for my home servers, it is a wonderful setup compared to other linux flavors. My problems I have run into with ubuntu is driver support.

If you look at it, the TCO of windows is alot lower than linux/unix in the business world.

GTI-Guy · Post by **GTI-Guy** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:56 pm

btlfedgolf;110599 wrote:

If you look at it, the TCO of windows is alot lower than linux/unix in the business world.

I will argue with you on this til my last breath