During 2007 IT directors should start putting open
source software on the shortlist of products to
evaluate.
Speaking earlier today at the ITxpo conference, David Cearley,
Gartner research vice-president, said, “Open source has invaded the
DNA of proprietary software. The days of vendors milking
maintenance revenues are over.”
Cearley said recent developments in the open source community
such as Oracle offering a supported version of Red Hat and
Microsoft supporting Novell’s Linux, shows how proprietary software
makers are now taking open source technology seriously.
He said Linux was a reality as a server operating system and was
set to eclipse proprietary Unix as more users switched to open
source.
He told IT directors to look closely at open source development
tools, since such tools are regarded by Gartner as highly mature.
“The web is driving open source development tools maturity,”
Cearley said.
Other areas growing in maturity, according to Cearley, include
open source application servers and collaboration software.
However, Cearley said he did not see desktop Linux as a viable
alternative to Windows. Cearley also warned that open source
application software was still in its infancy.
“It will be quite some time before we see a lot of movement in
open source applications.”
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