Open source software adoption patterns and organizational transition stages for software vendors

Open source software (OSS) is quickly becoming a reality in the software industry. Despite the increased proportion of OSS usage in software business, the software industry is still struggling with how to cope with this emerging paradigm. The author analyzes the patterns of OSS adoption in software business. Also, the author discusses the organizational transition stages that are encountered when the entire organization shifts toward OSS-aware business models. OSS adoption has been underestimated in enterprises in many cases. The challenges toward heterogeneous software development are described. Also, the author presents the transition issues facing software vendors.