Open source software is here to stay, Gartner reckons

OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE is here to stay and at least 80 per cent of commercial software will use some open source bits and bobs with a couple of years, a Gartner researcher told a Summit in Las Vegas.

Mark Driver, vice president of research at Gartner praised the open source model as a away of weeding out weak code, according to an Eweek report.

He suggested the open source model is a kind of software Darwinism, in which weak code, when identified, is left by the wayside as new code is evolved to replace it.

"Fragmentation, or the threat of fragmentation," he said, "is a feature of open source, not a threat. It keeps the industry competitive, as vendors know that if they screw up and do not meet the needs of their users, they will be weeded out and replaced."

He also revealed that "almost all" of Gartner's customers "are scrambling to create an open-source policy, as almost none of them have one as yet."

Corporates can no longer secretly adopt open source software and have to come clean. "It changes the rules of the game, but does not introduce an entirely new game, he told the gathered masses at the third annual Gartner Open Source Summit. "Corporate rules of engagement policy needs to be established for open-source software, which clearly cannot be ignored anymore," he said.

But open source is not a cheap or even a higher-quality alternative, he warned. If you think that, "you will be sorely disappointed, as that is not always the case. Some open software is better, and some is not," he said. µ