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Study Finds "Free Open Source Software Is Costing Vendors $60 Billion"

Open Source software is raising havoc throughout the software market. It is the ultimate in disruptive technology.

Dave Rosenberg Co-founder, MuleSource
Dave Rosenberg has more than 15 years of technology and marketing experience that spans from Bell Labs to startup IPOs to open-source and cloud software companies. He is CEO and founder of Nodeable, co-founder of MuleSoft, and managing director for Hardy Way. He is an adviser to DataStax, IT Database, and Puppet Labs.
Dave Rosenberg

I am trying to get my hands on this new report from the Standish Group that says that open source is decimating the traditional software market.

Open Source software is raising havoc throughout the software market. It is the ultimate in disruptive technology, and while to it is only 6% of estimated trillion dollars IT budgeted annually, it represents a real loss of $60 billion in annual revenues to software companies," said Jim Johnson, Chairman, The Standish Group International, Boston, MA

If the $60 billion is true (and I would assume based on Standish's five years of research it is) then we have been dramatically underestimating the impact open source is having on the traditional vendors. We've known there is a effect, and now we finally have some numbers (and $60 billion is a whopper.)

MySQL Marten Mickos has often spoken of "taking a $10 billion market and making it a $3 billion market." If you consider that open source has taken out $60 billion of traditional software revenues there will be a bloodletting in the proprietary world soon enough.

It's a great time to be an open source company.