According to a recent study conducted by the IDC and analyzed surveys from over 5,000 developers in 116 countries, finds the use of open source is increasing at a such a rate that it represents the most significant all-encompassing and long-term trend that the software industry has seen since the early 1980s.
Dr. Anthony Picardi, senior vice-president of global software research at IDC, said the use of open source beyond Linux is pervasive, used by almost three-quarters of organizations and spanning hundreds of thousands of projects. Although open source will significantly reduce the industry opportunity over the next 10 years, the real impact of open source is to sustain innovations in mature software markets, thus extending the useful life of software assets and saving customers money.
IDC identifies the following developments in the open source phenomenon:
