Services Market Is Key To Open Source Software

Open source software has become a major and fast-growing presence in the computer industry in recent years. Professor Tunay Tunca of Stanford Graduate School of Business and his co-authors argue that the key factor in whether to create open source software is the strength of the market for support, integration, and related services for such programs. Open source software - where the source code for programs, such as the Linux kernel and popular applications provided by Red Hat and similar software companies is freely available - has become a major and fast-growing presence in recent years. New research suggests that a key factor in companies' decisions about whether to create open source software is the market for support, integration, and related services for the programs.