We might quickly be reaching the point where it is safe to say that the days of software giants dominating the industry are quickly coming to an end, as a newer, faster, fluid competitor is demanding attention: that competitor is the open source market. A new study from IDC, as reported by PC World, reveals that the open source industry claimed $1.8 billion in 2006, and what’s worse for the long-time industry leaders…the profit is only accelerating.

The study reveals that the rate of growth will profit the industry a whopping $5.8 billion in 2011.

Why the rapid growth? Both companies and consumers are coming to the realization that open source allows for more options across the board.

If you are familiar with any open source software, you will know that the beauty behind it is how quickly open source software can be fixed, and flaws are remedied very shortly after coming to market; as software is open source, most users feel that those distributing open source software are more open to suggestions and revisions, and therefore are more receptive to adopting slightly flawed designs with promise of revision shortly thereafter.

The one unique factor that is standing in the way of open source industry development is that many open source developers release their software free of charge; however, this only benefits the industry, as more and more people adopt free open source software, they become aware of the advantages open source holds. From there, users become willing to pay nominal fees to use the software and designers they’ve come to know and trust.

What does this mean for the software of the future? We can definitely anticipate software that is more dynamic, constantly changing with consumer needs, and most importantly, quickly remedied when flaws are found. No more days of awaiting updates that don’t completely remedy the problem.

If you haven’t tried open source software yourself, start with something simple: Firefox or Camino. It will change your life.

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Entry was posted on Monday, June 4th, 2007 at 11:31 am under Open source.

Read more entries by Triston McIntyre.
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