Open sores?
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Could it be that the corporate appetite for open source is beginning to wane?
There is no shortage of open source enthusiasts willing to expound the virtues of software that is developed by a global community and is made available for free. But could it be that the corporate appetite for open source is beginning to wane?
The Central Scottish Police may prove to be the poster child for open source desktop software, but now it says it will revert to Microsoft Office.
In a similar vein, in March 2005, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors was forced to choose Microsoft's website support software because it could not find any open source alternative.
But both these examples are in areas where Microsoft has strong proven technology. More concerning for the open source community is Unilever's decision to drop its plans to migrate its massive SAP system to Linux. The move was intended to shave £66 million from its annual IT expenditure, but those sums no longer add up.
It is too early to predict the demise of open source - it has too many big supporters - but it may be that open source suppliers can no longer just compete on price.
