Convenience, not cost, drives open source adoption. That’s the primary finding of a new report from The Linux Foundation on the economic value of open source, and it’s a bit counterintuitive. In an interview with Professor Henry Chesbrough, adjunct professor at UC Berkeley and author of the report, he stressed that while cost is a significant perceived benefit of open source, not everyone finds it cheaper. Yet even the “open source costs more” crowd says the benefits of open source trump the costs. The primary advantage? Availability. In other words: speed of development.
