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Feb 2007
Report Three: Going open
The growth of open source software is increasingly placing pressure on the business models of proprietary software vendors. As a result, software vendors are looking at open source as an opportunity to grow distribution, to improve customer participation and retention, and to possibly respond to competitive pressure.
This report examines the trend of proprietary software vendors 'going open.' It pays particular attention to those software vendors in transition that have made, or are in the process of making, a major business-model shift toward open source, and away from their proprietary, licensed software roots. The report attempts to capture the process of going open by looking at these software vendors, examining their own experiences and best practices. It shares some early examples that lay the groundwork for further advancement and that provide the background information necessary to understand the impact that this reshaping will have on the software industry. Although the report is focused on proprietary software vendors going open, it can also be applied to smaller-scale projects by proprietary software vendors, or to gain a better understanding of the inner workings of an open source competitor.
The content of this report includes:
Introduction to the overall topic
Impact and implications for software vendors, investors, end users and the open source community at large
Primer for software vendors going open and related best practices
Opportunities for software vendors and overall future trends
Results of a 451 survey on the topic
Profiles of vendors that have already made the move to open source.
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