The rise of open source

It’s been years since the original idea of open source software was introduced. When it was first created, there was a lot of scepticism and even ignorance to it. In truth, traditional technology companies were to blame – touting open source as free, poor quality, no ownership and well, it wasn’t very positive.

But now that’s all changed. Open source has emphatically taken its place on the world stage and it’s not going anywhere. Who’s still talking about Unix? Not many. Meanwhile 80%-90% of the Unix market has been replaced by Linux, thanks in no small part to Red Hat, true pioneers of making open source software accessible to organisations.

Open source continues to grow

Open source is spreading with ever increasing momentum, and not only in the operating system, but throughout every layer of the technology stack – including the database layer. With the promise of little licensing fees, no restricting license contracts, high stability and robustness, many are replacing old software with open source software.

A community spirit

Today there’s a powerful open source commercial community, with companies increasingly committing IT resources to make their contribution and to play their part – the essence of open source. Now communities and companies are joining forces. This increases the speed of open source development and its adoption. Of course, there have been open source software casualties along the way. There’s no shame in this and it’s these bumps in the road that drives innovation.

The future’s bright

From its humble beginnings, open source is now the main driver behind the current strategic/tactical IT trends such as digital transformation, lower costs and the desire to move to the cloud. After all, it gives you total freedom and agility, as the licensing entails little or no restrictions when it comes to development, distributions and deployment. A real breathe of fresh air for enterprises around the world.