Open source software adoption: a status report

Using the right software is increasingly critical to project success, but the choices keep getting wider and more confusing. Open source software (OSS) has entered the mix, leaving the traditional confines of the hacker community and entering large-scale, well-publicized applications. However, although some argue that it is ready for wide-scale commercial adaptation and deployment, the myriad number of OSS packages make actual adoption a real challenge. This article presents a straightforward and practical roadmap to navigate your OSS adoption considerations. We do not have a universally accepted definition of OSS. For instance, Netscape, Sun Microsystems, and Apple recently introduced what they call "community-source" versions of their popular software-the Mozilla project, Solaris, and MacOS X, respectively. Such efforts, while validating the OSS concept, also make their inclusion into the OSS community a potential topic for contention. We use the loose definition of OSS that includes publicly available source code and community-source software.