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Open Source Technology Update
Breaking Away
4/1/2007
Indiana University balked at that approach in the 1990s and instead worked with American Management Systems (acquired by CGI Group in 2004), a major IT consulting system, to design and deploy a client-server system. The system proved reliable and scalable, but like many client-server systems that were written for specific operating systems and application programming interfaces (APIs), the software lacked modern features for the internet age.
— Mike Osterman, Whitman College
While universities were wrestling with internal development efforts or commercial ERP deployments, the open source movement quietly began in the early 1990s. From the Linux operating system to the Apache web server, developers worldwide agreed to write and share code enhancements for the greater common good. Still, open source wasn’t an overnight sensation. Even the most promising projects required many years to fully shine. It took nearly a decade for Linux and Apache to gain critical mass on corporate servers. Apache is now the internet’s dominant web server and Linux commands more than 30 percent of the server operating system market, according to market research firm International Data Corp.
More recently, open source applications have gained traction in businesses and on university campuses. Zimbra, an open source e-mail provider, says its e-mail inbox software has been downloaded from the web more than 6 million times. Many of those downloads landed within university settings, according to a spokesperson for the company. Other increasingly popular open source applications include Centric CRM, MySQL, JasperSoft (for business intelligence), and SugarCRM.
Even Apple is benefiting from the open source movement. Apple’s Mac OS X code is based on Unix, a close relative of Linux. That makes it easy for programmers to write Linux applications that they can test and deploy on Mac OS X. In fact, in February, IBM unveiled an open source desktop initiative that will provide tools for writing applications that run across Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
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