Information Society Watch

June 2006, Express Computer

This article discusses some reasons why SMBs (Small and Medium Businesses) are using open source platforms. Lower acquisition costs combined with the ability to tweak the source code are identified as key factors. This is helping to save precious capital in core business which would otherwise have been parked in buying proprietary software. Still, the lack of support to maintain, upgrade and customize these applications remains an obstacle. To address this problem, confidence-building measures are developing in order to help SMBs port their enterprise onto open source, such as HP’s plans to start an open reference architecture lab on Linux in Bangalore.

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