Open-source ECM firm Alfresco Software recently released what it called its “first-ever global survey of trends in the use of open-source software in the enterprise”.
Based on responses from 10,000 users, the Alfresco Open Source Barometer came to a very interesting conclusion:
“Windows is increasingly a popular evaluation platform for open source software but most enterprises use Linux when they go into production.”
Well, most enterprises that are Alfresco customers, maybe, but I doubt that data stands up quite so well at other shops.
One more point caught my attention:
“The research also showed that the UK lags behind in the adoption of open source, suggesting less government emphasis compared with other European countries such as France, Germany, Spain and Italy."
Maybe that’s true, although Alfresco’s customers probably aren’t a wholly reliable guide, at least when taken in isolation.
And one final one:
“Deployments of Red Hat have grown at a rate twice as fast as Novell SUSE since the controversial November 2006 patents and interoperability agreement announced by Novell and Microsoft.
‘This finding suggests that customers may not like the terms of the deal as more information became public,’ [said an Alfresco spokesman].”
Hmm, based on the best part of two decades attempting to get responses from real-life users on this sort of industry storm in a teacup, I really doubt that many customers give a damn one way or the other.
The Alfresco user barometer is a good starting place for arguments and might mature into a very useful indicator but this is a company just starting out. I’ll be waiting a little longer before I’m confident that its research can always offer broader insights into the minds of the ECM user community.
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