Do we really need support for open source software? (Hint: it depends on who you are.)
CIO.com did an interesting survey about open source usage in the enterprise. While I question the accuracy of some of the numbers, if you take them as a general guideline, they generate some interesting discussion. For example, as an answer to the question "do we really need support for open source software?"
When it comes to support for open source software, I find that some people agree that it's absolutely critical and others look at you like you are crazy. Those that think you are crazy argue that the open source model itself provides for support. Turns out, if you are a developer working on open source software, the community support is enough:
The quality of support was the biggest obstacle to only 15 percent of developers.
But once your developed application moves into production or is used more widely, community support is often not enough. It's not that the community can't solve your problem, it's just that at 3am when your company's web application is down, you don't want pointers to three other reports that might help solve your problem. You want someone to say "we're on it, we'll have you a work around in an hour." That's what leads to open source software support concerns:
Half the respondents whose companies use open source today (52 percent) cite product support concerns as the greatest barrier to entry. A third (33 percent) of those who don't use open source identified this as a primary problem.
And that's why many companies exist to provide support for open source software products.
OpenLogic takes it one step further and working with partners and the community, provides one number to call support for 400+ open source software products.
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