Germany is poised to see sales of open-source software
and services grow substantially over the next few years,
particularly in the public sector, according to a report published
this week.
In its report "The market for open-source software in Germany",
Soreon Research projected that sales of open-source software and
services will rise from €131m (£91m) today to €307m by 2007.
"When we talk about sales of open-source software, what we mean
is a service that a vendor provides in copying the software on a CD
and distributing the disc to a customer," said Soreon spokesman
Christian Lipski.
SuSE Linux, for instance, offers enterprises a package which
includes CDs and documentation, as well as the right to receive
patches and updates and to use the company's hotline for technical
support.
The study said the sale of open-source software in Germany will
account for only €10m of the €131m in sales projected for the year.
The majority comes from support services, which will generate €81m
in sales, followed by training at €27m and installation services at
€13m.
The number of companies and organisations deploying open-source
software in Germany will increase from 12% today to 18% by 2005 and
24% by 2007.
The study was based on interviews with 150 companies and
organisations in the private and public sectors, excluding the
agricultural market, using 10 PCs or more. "Based on this, 12%
amounts to roughly 310,000 companies and organisations using
open-source products in Germany," said research director Steffen
Binder.
Soreon estimated that the public sector will account for around
a quarter of sales of open-source software and services in 2007, up
from 6% today.
The major reasons companies cited for using open-source software
were cost, security and stability.
John Blau and James Niccolai write for IDG
News Service