Open Source Software: Opportunities and challenges

Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) is air imposing business reality but only air emerging discipline of business research. Critical questions have been so far only tangentially investigated and were mostly left to IT columnists and consultants to deal with, generally in a partisan fashion. Such important issues include the viability of FLOSS business models, the impact of FLOSS oil the software industry structure and competitiveness, the FLOSS-based national IT strategies. the role of governments and other lobbying groups in promoting or combating FLOSS, and finally the vital matters of TCO, security. and performance among others. This paper tries to lay the foundation in analyzing the FLOSS phenomenon by pointing to the real opportunities that lie ahead and the critical challenges that have to be addressed before FLOSS Call claim its rightful stake in the software industry.