Open Source Software Adoption Policies – The Reality…
My previous post regarding my appreciation of the state of open source software seemed to have attracted enough attention to warrant a follow up, and more specifically addressing the issue around why not everybody are using free, open source software, or as James McGovern puts it, why are so many people that should be aware of, and using OSS still asleep behind the wheel?
So ignoring the Windows loving masses and complete end-users and focusing purely on the people making and creating the software powering modern enterprises today, i.e the developers and the architects, and especially in companies where they have already adopted something else than a pure Microsoft environment (Java, PHP, Linux, etc) the question does seem valid – “why are these people still paying for proprietary software when they can get the same thing for free?”
Herewith some of the roadblocks I have personally experienced in the last 5 years I’ve spent at an international enterprise organization.
Problem #1: Most managers and CIOs need to know “So who do we phone when the systems go down and our own staff cant fix it?” – and believe me, they just love this one. Ignoring once again the professional open source companies that have multiple people on a permanent payroll providing consulting and support (e.g. JBoss) this really is a justifiable issue and considering the excessive loss of profit in a system downtime situation a definite concern.
Unfortunately proving the stability and reliability of a system is no small task, and involves the input and time of many professional developers and architects which could otherwise have been adding business value by developing business specific applications – and not all companies have a dedicated R&D team that can look at these things.
Problem #2: If it ain’t broke don’t try and fix it. If you have any kind of existing legacy that suits 90% of the company’s needs then a rip and replace strategy will really only give you enough firepower to shoot yourself in both feet somewhere very soon down the line. Companies don’t mind spending money on something that gives them stability in their efforts to make more money – bottom line…
Problem #3: Skills & training. It takes skills and training to migrate from one product to another, and given the second roadblock these two become quite a devastating combination. Not all people like to figure things out for themselves, and not all OSS products have official training courses and proper documentation.
Problem #4: Security. Many people perceive OSS as insecure as many people have direct access to the source code. This is a very shallow surface only view, but a very big roadblock to overcome in the quest to utilize OSS in the corporate workplace.
Problem #5: Where’s the roadmap? Enterprise organizations typically embark on a long relationship with a company or a specific piece software because of the cost of migration as explained above, and many OSS products simply don’t have a 3 – 5 year roadmap of where they are going, which features will be added, etc etc etc.
Problem #6: Singular Leadership: OSS products are usually associated to and ‘owned’ by a single, unbelievably passionate person that started the software as a dream and that have taken ownership of the product (Marc Fleury, Linus Torvalds, Gavin King, etc). These people do however move on and one wonders how the future stability of the product depends on the new person in charge whom nobody has ever heard of. Granted this also happens in proprietary software companies, but you usually have a whole support structure underneath each leader that can take over at any stage.
As the aim of this post is not to point out the problems that exist in the OSS model I believe that the above provides enough of an indication as to why not everybody are flocking to free, open source software and replacing their proprietary, expensive software where OSS alternatives exist. I also don’t insinuate or imply that the above 6 points can never be overcome either…
I am a firm supporter and adopter of OSS where I can, and I have been fighting this fight for long enough in my company to know the ins and outs of the roadblocks as outlined above – but I am also the first to point out that if I have to start a new company from scratch that I will utilize as much OSS as possible to enable me to gain critical mass in a much shorter space of time, with less effort, and by spending less effort and time and resources on reinventing the wheel on a daily basis…
