Challenges and strategies in the use of Open Source Software by Independent Software Vendors

Open Source Software (OSS) has already been adopted by a large number of organizations. An important – but sometimes neglected – group of OSS users are Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). ISVs often develop their applications on top of OSS platform software. Frequently, this requires making several extensions and modifications to these OSS components. We identify a number of challenges that ISVs face in handling these extensions and modifications. Next, we describe several strategies ISVs can follow in maintaining these modifications. Finally, we suggest an opportunity for a closer collaboration between OSS projects and ISVs which could be mutually beneficial.