A new article in InfoWord wonders if open source software will eventually take down the big pay to play software companies/applications from Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP. The article goes on to state they don't believe this will happen.
Personally, I love open source software and whenever I get a chance I have my developers develop web based applications in PHP with MySQL. I think the open source movement is an excellent one for a variety of reasons. First, from a security standpoint with so many companies and individuals working on applications a lot of the security holes that appear in Microsoft applications find a way of being worked out in Open Source. Now obviously this isn't always the case, but more times than not you don't have the same types of security problems with open source as you do with other vendor specific applications.
Second, open source applications can work extremely well. I have several open source tools that I use on a daily basis and even a few I openly recommend to clients for specific purposes. In these specific cases I find it difficult to even find a pay to play application that works as well.
However, sadly, I have to agree with the writer of this article. I don't believe the open source movement is going to eliminate the vendor specific applications anytime soon. For several reasons. First, at the end of the day we have a market economy and it takes money to continually develop, improve, and market a software application. The open source movement is one of volunteers and voluntary collaboration and while this does work for the open source movement many IT directors and corporate managers will not be willing to risk their butt on applications that may not be supported or have regular production schedules associated with them. There is an old saying that nobody ever got fired for buying IBM. This saying developed because at the time IBM had the best systems in the world and gave outstanding support to their clients and buyers knew that if they had a problem that IBM would fix it.
Unfortunately open source can't compete with that... yet. Many times if you have an open source application and need help you must spend a great deal of time posting and reading in various communities to find a solution to a problem and sometimes you never find one. Now this happens with Microsoft applications as well, but if you need it you can call a company that can offer support. They can offer this support because they are making a profit on the sales of their application and the corresponding support contract.
In addition, open source programs are released as people work on them and don't have specific releases and dates for releases. This makes it very tough on the company that needs to carefully plan upgrade schedules and roll outs to users. In addition, if a feature or problem is present in an application often times there is no guarantee when or if a new release will come out that will address the problem, which creates a problem for managers when they must answer to their bosses, boards, and shareholders.
I believe the strongest contribution that open source provides to the market is its ability to scare the pay to play vendors into constant improvements and innovations in their products. They know that if they fall asleep for even a little while that the open source guys can and will be there to eat their lunch. I love the fierce competition these guys must endure to stay alive because it ensures that we the consumer always have the best products and applications to choose from which is a fundamental principle in economics.
I will always use and endorse open source programming and movements, but I simply don't think they will eliminate the pay to play vendor. However if they keep that vendor on his toes and constantly innovating then they have provided a priceless service to the industry.
