Standalone open source software market reaches £900m

The standalone open source software (OSS) market was worth £900m last year, with further acceleration in take up expected this year, said analyst IDC.

"We are in the early stages of the development and deployment of OSS," said Matt Lawton, an analyst at IDC. "Although we see healthy growth in revenue from standalone open source software, we must keep in mind that revenue will substantially lag behind the distribution of open source software.

"Many distributions of standalone OSS are free, while paid distributions typically are based on pay-as-you-go subscriptions rather than pay-up-front licence fees," said Lawton.

IDC said the drivers for OSS adoption included firms realising that OSS provides them with more choice and greater leverage with proprietary software supplier.

Total standalone OSS revenue is expected to reach £2.4bn by 2011, said IDC, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26% from 2006 to 2011.

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