http://news.cnet.com/

Talk to any open-source vendor (myself included), and we’ll tell you that there’s a lot of money to be saved by dropping your proprietary software in favor of open-source alternatives. But is that always the case? And, if so, what are the necessary preconditions for saving money?

I chaired a panel at OSCON 2009 where we explored this topic, with some interesting results.

Jeffrey Hammond, a senior analyst with Forrester, provided the underlying data, but Matt Deuel (Virgin Mobile) and Barry Klawans (San Francisco International Airport, IT&T Department) offered real-world experience deploying open-source software, while Zack Urlocker (MySQL/Sun/Oracle) highlighted the balance open-source vendors must strike when working with customers and communities.

Hammond noted that in the rush to save money, CIOs are increasingly turning to open source, though often “open source” isn’t the end goal, per se, but rather it’s a natural road to vendor independence, IT flexibility, and other goals.

Hence, while we see increased interest in open source, that interest doesn’t adequately measure just how pervasive open source has become:

More at:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10295530-16.html?tag=mncol;posts