Open Source Featured Article

In response to the latest Evans Data Corporation’s Open Source software and Linux survey, most open source developers recommend using commercial versions of Linux over non-commercial versions of Linux when creating mission-critical, large enterprise, high performance computing applications.

 

According to the survey, non-commercial Linux is usually preferred for Web development and embedded systems. The survey was conducted in August and gathered data from 400 developers who are actively involved in open source development.

 

According to the survey, Ubuntu (News - Alert) — which is used by 24 percent of the open source developers, is the most used Linux distribution. For those who are unfamiliar with Ubuntu, it is a community developed Linux-based operating system that is ideally suited for laptops, desktops and servers.

 

Further, the in-depth survey also shows that the combination of Red Hat (News - Alert) Linux and Red Hat Enterprise tops Ubuntu use, where 21 percent used Red Hat Linux and 19 percent used Red Hat Enterprise.

 

The survey also depicts that VMware was the top virtual machine technology used by the open source developers, with just over a third reporting its use.

 

Another key finding of the survey shows that Apache/BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution or Berkeley UNIX) style licensing or GPL2 (GNU General Public License version 2.0) are far the most utilized open source licensing models, while GPL3 (GNU General Public License version 3.0) and LGPL (GNU Lesser General Public License) are lagging far behind.

 

“While the open source nature of Linux and the availability of Linux source code appeal to developers doing complex leading edge and mission critical work,” said John Andrews, president and CEO of Evans Data Corp. “They also like the additional support they get with commercial products. And since improper configuration is the largest perceived security threat to a Linux system, configuration and management tools that come with commercial distros are important in these situations.”

 

Evans Data Corporation provides regularly updated IT industry market intelligence that is based on in-depth surveys. Its syndicated research includes surveys focused on developers in a wide variety of subjects.