From the “1+1=11” files:
Gartner has a
report outtoday claiming 85 percent of companies are now using open source. It
’
s a funny number in my opinion since the reality is more like 100 percent.
If you visit a site that is hosted on an Apache Webserver does that count? If you use Firefox does that count? If you use a program that was built with GCC (and many do) does that count?
Gartner expects that it will hit 100 percent in the next 12 month though. The more interesting part is that their survey found that 69 percent of companies surveyed,”… still have no
formal policy for evaluating and cataloguing OSS usage in their
enterprise.” That’s a big deal of course and one that vendors like HP, Black Duck, OpenLogic and Palamida all have developed strong offerings around.
“Understanding when and how an OSS alternative may
be used is a frustrating process, especially when there are so many
license types and forms from which to choose,” said said Laurie Wurster, research director at Gartner in a statement. “As
time goes by, many of these concerns will be addressed, but this
continues to be a slow process. Increases in OSS popularity and in the
rate of OSS adoption will drive the required changes.”
The obvious question – is if Open Source Software (OSS) is so frustrating in Gartner’s view – than how do they explain that 85 percent now and 100 percent within a year are using open source?
Apparently it’s not so frustrating that people won’t use it.