Executive Summary (This is a document excerpt)

In January 2005, Forrester surveyed 137 North American IT decision-makers to learn about their companies' plans for Linux and open source software. According to this sample, Linux and open source are continuing to gain acceptance and the holdouts are declining. Cost savings continue to be the driver behind adoption, although other benefits, such as security and software choice, are also important. LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl/Python/PHP) continues to be the leading open source development platform. Support issues are an important concern, and options for obtaining various support services seem limited. Some of the high-visibility issues, such as liability for copyright infringement, aren't a major concern among respondents; this indicates a growing level of sophistication among open source software users. On the other hand, highly touted advantages of open source — especially the ability to view and modify the source code — aren't seen as important by most of the respondents. Customers who are still on the fence about adopting open source software should understand that presumed barriers don't seem to be blocking most companies from moving ahead with open source strategies.

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