OpenLogic, an information security firm, now offers an over-the-wire scanning tool to search for open-source software on Windows, Linux, and Solaris computers. The Discovery utility is said to find over 5,000 variants of 900 top enterprise-friendly open-source packages, by marking open-source fingerprints in a scan of up to 500 machines on your networks. When you find applications, you can know what support needs you might be facing, and then you can prepare.

Kim Weins, OpenLogic VP of marketing, told a LinuxInsider writer that customers would guess that they had 15 or 20 open source products on their networks only to discover that workers were using 200 or more open source applications.

Since IT history is rife with examples of applications sneaking in the back doors and becoming a support need, utilities like this are a valuable addition to your administrator’s toolkit. The Discovery utility scans the network and then lists what open source packages are installed and how many installations were found for each package. It also lists which products are on specific machines, how often they are used, and the open source licenses involved.

Is another scanning tool needed for open source? Does the link to license sources add value?

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