Open Source Report: Why Orgs Use Open Source Software
In this video, hear what 2023 State of Open Source survey respondents selected as their top reasons to use open source software, and how the answers varied by geographical region.
This video is from the webinar, “The 2023 State of Open Source Report: Key Findings and Analysis” that took place on February 16, 2023. It features Javier Perez (Chief OSS Evangelist and Senior Director of Product Management, Perforce Software) and Stefano Maffulli (Executive Director, Open Source Initiative) discussing the most interesting findings from this year’s State of Open Source report — and what the results tell us about the future of open source software.
Watch the complete webinar here: https://ter.li/t86nq2
Download the 2023 State of Open Source Report here: https://ter.li/kelibg
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Transcript (lightly edited for clarity):
Javier Perez: How about the next category here, which sometimes creates controversy — reasons to use open source software. Last year, the number one response was the same as this year: Access to innovation and the latest technologies. This is good, right? I mean, this proves that open source is giving everyone access to the latest technologies and those technologies are being developed in the open. And organizations are contributing to them. We all benefit of that. But for me, the biggest surprise is that cost reduction didn't even make this chart — it's way below at number nine! Which is funny because it was number one for so long.
Stefano Maffulli: This shows really the maturity level. There is so much software available in a permission-less economy where you don't have to ask for permissions in order to innovate. You can grab a package, you can participate, decide to participate in a project, and off you go, you are at the tip of the innovation curve without having to call someone to get a contract in place or anything else. And I think that's the basic promise that we have. 25 years ago, the Open Source Initiative started putting out there that you could have an economy that did not require signing contracts, or sitting in sales meetings all the time. And you could generate innovation like this. And this has been proven. Yep. It's working.
Javier Perez: It is working. And the audience can read the chart, but I mean, things like stable technologies are motivating factors, right? Some of these open source projects have been around for a long time. They have plenty of releases, a lot of contributors. It's something that you can trust. And thinking about long-term support, it’s very interesting. People should go and check in the report because we break down this question by the company size, by region, and by industry. Another thing that was interesting; our friends from the UK, they asked me to make sure that we had a category for the UK separate from Europe. So we did our own Brexit (laughs). In Europe, cost reduction — that it's free software — is still up there as a top reason, whereas in the UK, it's more about innovation and access to the latest technologies. So it’s interesting when you break down per region or industry and see the differences. People can read the report, which has a lot of good stuff like this. No license cost in Europe is still the number one driver, at 41%, but in North America, it’s functionality, meaning open source functioning as an accelerator to development.
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About the 2023 State of Open Source Report:
The 2023 State of Open Source Report is a collaboration between OpenLogic by Perforce and the Open Source Initiative (OSI). The report details open source software usage, adoption, and challenges based on anonymous survey responses from open source users across all eight global regions, working in 20+ industries, for organizations of all sizes. Each page is packed with the latest data on the top open source technologies and trends — all accompanied by expert insights and analysis.