Open Source Blog

+ "The figures show that Europe leads the way in its preference for open source platforms, particularly in the deployment of new applications, and replacement of outdated systems, with France and Germany at the forefront.

+ When French respondents were asked about the extent to which open source software (OSS) is considered when procuring software, close to two-thirds (61.6%) stated that it is either the preferred option, or explicitly considered as an option when procuring software. This is a significant statistic, exceeded only by Germany (63.6%).

+ The findings tally with those of analysts including Forrester, which reported earlier this year that Europe is leading in the adoption of enterprise open source. This year’s Actuate Annual Open Source Survey confirms that just over half (51%) of German respondents are actively using OSS, 43% for the UK, 42% for France and 40% for North America.

+ Digging deeper into organisations’ approaches to OSS, Actuate found, in the UK, that the proportion of respondents believing that the benefits of Open Source software outweigh the inhibitors has increased this year to 54.0% (from 45.3% in 2007). This figure rises to 65.4% in France, North America 53.5% and Germany 48.6%

+ Persisting barriers to adoption include a lack of in-house skills to implement OSS (cited by 58.2%) – overtaking perceived issues with the availability of long-term support. This suggests not only that more organisations have progressed further with their investigations into the value of open source, to have come to this conclusion, but also that the skills are harder to find because of the greater adoption of OSS across businesses generally."

“The findings confirm that open source is not a passing fad, but is being broadly recognised and embraced as offering organisations sustained competitive advantage,” said Nobby Akiha, Actuate’s SVP of marketing. “What’s more, Europe is leading the way, spearheaded by the substantial markets of Germany and France.”