Why aren’t companies using more open source?
IDC says the top two reasons companies don't use more open source is:
- "The potential for copyright and patent infringement"
- "availability of support"
We've been hearing that for a while now and that's why we indemnify all 300 plus open source software products in our library (for both copyrights and patents) and we support all of those products. We know companies want to use open source and we want to make it easy for them to make that decision. It's already hard enough for an organization to change a working solution – we want to make it as easy as possible for those that are already motivated to use open source to convince their peers and bosses that open source is not only good but that it's not any riskier than non-open source.
On that note, IDC did agree that companies want to use open source. They said the motivators to use open source (total cost of ownership, initial costs and functionality) are much stronger than the legal and support worries.
One of the main reasons I speak a lot on open source licenses and legal issues is to disseminate knowledge. It's a lot easier to debunk that legal FUD if you understand it yourself. So spread the word!
