Open source 'costs proper software companies $60 billion a year'

21 Apr 2008 | 10:32 BST

By Sylvie Barak

A VERY DUBIOUS NEW report claims that "Open Source software is raising havoc throughout the software market” and calls it “the ultimate in disruptive technology”.

The Standish Group International, who pompously call itself “the leader in spotting future trends”, and also claims to be the bearer of “reliable IT advice built on a solid foundation of primary research” has published a report that suggests the outfit is more like a bunch of corporate payrolled blue pinstripe suits.

The “study” claims that Open Sauce is causing “a real loss of $60 billion in annual revenues to software companies” on a yearly basis, as if to say that the thieving saucers snatched the money straight from the wallets of firms like Oracle, Apple, Adobe and the Vole. But to paraphrase in slightly more accurate terms than the Standish Group’s chairman, Jim Johnson, what the report actually points out is that: open source is so popular, that fewer people are buying its expensive and often mediocre software counterparts, making the corporate giants lose out on a tasty $60 billion a year slice of the market. Shame. Pass the tissues, sniff.

Dubbing itself "Trends in Open Source", the report outlines details of what the group reckons are the top 10 drivers that are influencing decisions on how IT is adopting open source technology. The fact that users don’t want to buy rubbish, expensive software when they can get rather good freebies, is not exactly top of the Standish Group’s list. Instead, the “shocking” use of open sauce by commercial and government organisations is mentioned as a driving factor by none other than former President of Oracle OnDemand, Timothy Chou.

We would have told you more about the “thoughtful, objective and extremely useful” study, but we couldn’t be bothered to shell out the $1,000 per copy that Standish wants for it. Personally, we find that a bit greedy after all the money they were probably paid by the Vole and its mates to write the report in the first place.

We'll just wait for the Open Sauce version, if that's OK. µ

L’Inq
The dubious report (for only $1000)

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