As businesses look to become less dependent on software vendors to solve their integration issues there is a groundswell of support for open source solutions. For companies already using open source, a survey of IT decision makers by Forrester earlier this year found that 51% were using it in mission-critical applications.

Two primary factors are at play in the continuing adoption of open source business applications. First is the emergence of Web 2.0 user-driven content and video sites. Getting more bang for the software buck is also a powerful motivating force, according to Jim Connolly, director of software development for financial technology company Kettley.

A company's decision to contribute to open source projects is usually business-driven. This article offers a review of the top reasons that can influence your company to contribute source code to open source or to start new open source projects.

Once the traditional anti-open source poster child, Microsoft is slowly seeing this aura eroding replaced as a direct consequence of the rise of new, more pressing, rivals such as Google and Apple.

Open source has infiltrated so many levels of IT over the past decade. It has been a slow process, however slowly but surely it has become a normality. And even though many companies are adopting open source software, they are hesitant to bring open source developers into the fold. Let’s take a look at some good reasons to hire open source developers.

Selling businesses on the benefits of Linux has been a tough proposition for many years. Common reasons cited for not moving to the open-source operating system include system complexity, lack of in-house IT skills and a shortage of business applications.

When I first saw the list for the eWEEK slide show, Ten Reasons Not to Buy Open Source, I couldn't believe what I was reading. So here are my answers to these "reasons."

When I first saw the list for the eWEEK slide show, Ten Reasons Not to Buy Open Source, I couldn't believe what I was reading. So here are my answers to these "reasons."

Several days ago, I wrote about the real reasons why I, and so many others, use Linux to an overwhelming response. One of the often-cited reasons for using Linux in my post that I dismissed is that it is open-source. Most people seemed to agree, but here is my question: If Linux was exactly as it is now, except it was proprietary and closed-source, would you still use it?