10 reasons to use open source in business, Aug 21, 2009

The success of the open source development model has radically transformed the way in which software development is approached in many sectors of the computer software industry.

Sooooo, a few weeks ago I decided to ditch my Xandros installation on the Asus EeePC 900a.

The recession is apparently driving some firms to look at Linux as a cost-saving alternative to Microsoft – is it time for open source to take off?

One by-product of the need to get netbooks onto the market with a small price has seen major laptop manufacturers embrace Linux as the operating system they pre-load the machines with.

It may be open source, but Linux has frequently required support from corporate support, including the proprietary software market.

Stephen Fry has appeared in a video on the GNU web site, in which he criticises the closed nature of operating systems from Microsoft and Apple.

Sun Microsystems has purchased MySQL and released Java under the GPL. Chief executive Jonathan Schwartz has also speculated that there could be a future release of Solaris under the GPL, but what are the implications of such a move.

Groklaw is the blog that has made a difference. Created as a personal project by Pamela Jones, better known as PJ, in 2003, its stated purpose was to increase understanding of the law as it is applied to Linux and free software

While Linux is still taking off relatively slowly in the desktop world, the same is not true in the mobile space where many are predicting that we will be presented with a mobile Linux Odyssey in 2012.

The logical next step for Canonical, the holding company for Ubuntu, has been to capitalise on this popularity by making advances into commercial markets, offering industrial strength training and support to Linux users, and establishing partnerships with Dell and Sun to provide pre-installed Ubuntu systems.