Open Source Alliance Cyberjaya

A recent study from research outfit IDC Corp. has found that the market for standalone open source software (OSS) is growing significantly — but don’t expect revenues to keep up with adoption rates. The study found that worldwide revenue from standalone OSS reached $1.8 billion in 2006. This revenue will climb to $5.8 billion in 2011, representing a compound annual growth rate of 26 per cent from 2006 to 2011, IDC predicted. IDC defined standalone OSS as being distributed or sold on its own, rather than being embedded in or sold as a complementary offering with other software.

The degree of expected growth for OSS shouldn’t be surprising for those who have been watching adoption increase over the last few years, according to Matt Lawton, Toronto-based program director of IDC’s Open Source Software Business Models research program. “That kind of growth is easier to obtain when…adoption of open source software is starting to take hold in a commercial environment that is looking to pay for subscriptions, support around that software and other services.”

Adoption has climbed as recognition and acceptance of Linux as a “prime and leading example of open source software” has grown, said Lawton. But in the last year or two, OSS activity has moved up the software stack, reaching the application deployment and development tools arena. The JBoss Application Server, developed by the Red Hat-sponsored open source middle community JBoss.org, is a good example, Lawton said. OSS has climbed even higher up the stack into the realm of applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM). “We’re starting to see that vendors are producing (OSS apps), a community is developing around them, and customers are starting to adopt them,” he said. Leading examples of OSS apps include SugarCRM, webERP, ERP5 as well as Compiere, an integrated ERP/CRM solution.

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Under Linux’s GPLv3, expected this summer, TiVo would no longer be able to implement measures it says are essential to protecting copyrighted material..

Novell isn’t the only company that could be hurt by new license terms likely to be implemented by the group that polices open source software.

In a regulatory filing, digital video recorder manufacturer TiVo warned that the newly revised General Public License could harm its business.

TiVo’s set-top boxes run on the open source Linux operating system and incorporate GNU open source components. Its systems include features that limit Tivo’s functionality if users attempt to modify its internal software.

Tivo hacking is becoming a popular way for users to work around the copyright protections that TiVo has added to its systems as part of its effort to build partnerships with content providers.

The forthcoming third version of the General Public License, however, would prohibit manufacturers of consumer appliances that use open source software from implementing technical measures designed to prevent user modifications.

According to the final draft of GPLv3, released Thursday by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), “When you convey a covered work, you waive any legal power to forbid circumvention of technical measures.”

That has TiVo worried. “If the currently proposed version of GPLv3 is widely adopted, we may be unable to incorporate future enhancements to the GNU/Linux operating system into our software, which could adversely affect our business,” TiVo warns.

Read more: IT News