DARJIX

There have been a number of stories from analysts and companies about how Open Source will thrive in recessionary times. Sun made that argument today.

“We are preconfigured for the downturn,” Schwartz said in an interview with Computerworld last month. He claimed that users will be more inclined to try open-source products such as MySQL, OpenSolaris and Sun’s GlassFish application server during a time of economic stress.

The basic argument is that because OSS is typically cheaper than their proprietary counterparts, that more companies will switch to open source (or choose open source over a proprietary solution.)

The argument is flawed because enterprise software tends to have very high switching costs. In other words, companies don’t tend to rip and replace systems to reduce their operating costs since it requires significant investment. I doubt that companies will want to invest, even to lower operating costs, in the middle of a recession.

Some enterprises will decide to purchase open source solutions, instead of a proprietary solution, to reduce their operating cost. However, since overall IT spending will decrease, it is difficult to ascertain the overall impact of this shift.

Many of the large Open Source vendors actually have mixed-source portfolios. Even if there is an surge in revenues form Open Source, these vendors should really be worried about renewals and sales of proprietary solutions.