Links:
Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS)

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Some clips from the links resource web page below:

27. MySQL's market share is growing faster than Windows'. An Evans Data
survey released in January 2004 found that the use of OSS/FS database MySQL
grew 30% over the year, vs. 6% for Microsoft's SQL Server and Access
databases, according to a survey of 550 developers. Microsoft still has a
far greater total market share in the database development market, but
Evans Data reported that OSS/FS's "price and its ability to integrate with
other software mesh well with the priorities of application developers" and
that "Concerns over stability, expense and how well a database plays with
others are leading a quickly growing number of...companies to seriously
consider and implement an open source database solution." Evans Data noted
that "We expect this trend to continue as the open source offerings are
continually improved upon."

28.	Internet Explorer has been losing marketshare to OSS/FS web browsers
(such as Mozilla Firefox) since mid-2004, a trend especially obvious in
leading indicators such as technology sites, web development sites, and
bloggers. PC World found that in July 2004, Internet Explorer began to
measurably lost market share to OSS/FS browsers. According to PC World, IE
lost 1% of its market share in a single month, July 2004. In the same time
period Mozilla-based browser use increased by 26% (when compared to its
previous share). IE was still far more widely used at this time according
to this July 2004 poll (94.73%), but IE hadn't lost market share for many
years, and it takes a significant event for that many people to change
browsers. This was probably at least in part due to repeated security
problems (though its poor support of web standards and lack of features may
also have had a role). Note that the major Mozilla rewrite of its web
browser, Mozilla Firefox, wasn't even officially available at time; Firefox
wasn't officially released until November 9, 2004.

29.  As of 2004, a CSC study determined that an astonishing 14% of the large
enterprise office systems market are using OSS/FS OpenOffice.org.
Consulting firm Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) unsurprisingly found that
Microsoft dominates the office suite market, with 95% of the overall share
and more than 300 million users worldwide. But surprisingly, they found
that the OSS/FS OpenOffice.org has secured 14% of the large enterprise
office systems market, with over 16 million downloads and countless CD
installations.

30.	A February 2005 survey of developers and database administrators
found that 64% use an Open Source database. Evans Data Corp.'s "Winter 2005
Database Development Survey" of developers and database administrators
(DBAs), released February 2005, found a strong increase in use of a variety
of OSS/FS databases throughout corporate U.S. Evans found 64% (about
two-thirds) use Open Source databases (up from 58% the previous year), and
over 50% use (or plan to use) XQuery and other open web services standards
with their data -- Open Source or proprietary.

Two key factors seem to driving this rise: survey respondents indicated
that OSS/FS databases are increasing their performance and scalability to
the point where they are acceptable for use in corporate enterprise
environments, and many organizations have tight IT and database development
budgets. Evans found that MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Firebird were popular
OSS/FS databases. Evans found FireBird is the most used database among all
database programs for Ôedge' applications, with Microsoft Access as a close
second (at 21%). In addition, MySQL and FireBird are locked in a virtual
tie in the OSS/FS database space; each are used by just over half of
database developers who use OSS/FS databases.