OStatic

We've reported before on how the gloomy economic environment is increasing enterprise adoption of open source software, and we're not the only ones. As we reported here, when respondents to North Bridge Partners' Future of Open Source Survey were asked if the economic downturn is having a good or bad effect on open source, a whopping 96 percent of survey respondents answered good. That was up from 81 percent in last year's survey. Notably, though, many of those same survey respondents felt that lack of awareness of open source alternatives to proprietary software is a significant obstruction to open source adoption in enterprises.

I've thought of all of these things as I've been sifting through Datamation's exhaustive 101 Open Source Apps for Enterprises collection. It contains lots of surprises, and applications that many companies should look into.

Datamation's Matt Hartley revisited the timeless issue of Linux and uniformity-- the infamous question of choice. On one side of the argument, people say that the number of options available is what makes Linux great. The other side says that the array of choices holds Linux back.

Both sides have valid points. Uniformity shouldn't mean giving up options, and choices shouldn't be a scapegoat for what ought to be an expected (but not necessarily painful) learning curve.