Commercial success of open source software

Abstract

Firms are ready to invest in IT systems and are prepared to pay substantial acquisition and maintenance costs to gain efficiency and effectiveness benefits. However, the proprietary software has lately come under criticism and Open Source Software is gaining acceptance among software users and making its presence felt in getting hold in the software market too. Today, a wide variety of OSS is available including immensely popular software like Linux kernel (operating system based on UNIX), Apache (HTTP Web server), Tomcat Web server, Moodle (course management system), Mozilla Firefox (Web browser), MySQL, PostgreSQL, OpenOffice and many more. Almost all of the above have been the most successful software commercially and are creating new benchmarks. In this study we have tried to understand the general perception of users about Open Source Software and the barriers to adoption of Open Source Software in commercial firms. A primary research was conducted on a sample of around 100 software users. As secondary research, through E. Roger's "Diffusion of Innovation" theory we tried to map Diffusion of OSS as an innovation. As far as barriers in adoption of OSS commercially are concerned, apart from objective factors like functionality, reliability etc., general user's perception becomes a bigger criterion. Throughout the study one common characteristic came into light again and again. This was: some of the OSS software enjoy a huge presence, much more than proprietary software. These software are mostly big software which already have become a benchmark in the industry (referring to Apache, MySQL) etc. Through the research, we found that OSS will gain acceptability if it scores on functionality, tweaking ability,and cost. Then it can proliferate in the software market.