Do you know what open source software you are using?
OpenLogic's mission in life is to make it easy for enterprises to use open source software, so the first question we ask when we meet with a potential customer is "What open source software are you using?" That's a hard question for a large company to answer. It turns out that the commercial software tracking tools that companies use don't track open source software. They usually have to send out a company wide email asking "what open source software are you using?" They then wait for the replies and compile a large Excel spreadsheet with the answer. If they are lucky, they get complete data with lots of useful information like version numbers, websites, why the team is using the software, etc. We often have to do two or three iterations just to truly understand their needs. So, we decided to write OpenLogic Discovery. (Actually, Rod decided to write it during his RV vacation – hopefully, his wife will let him take his laptop on his next vacation!) Discovery runs on a system and compares all of the files with footprints of about 5000 open source software applications. It then reports back on all the open source software it has found. It finds installed open source binaries, not just source code. It's a free tool – although not open source at the moment – available for download on our website. Check it out. Now you'll really know what open source software you are using!
P.S. We are working on expanding our library of footprints – Discovery knows about 5000 open source software applications right now but we know there are lots more out there!
