Open source software in 2006 was characterized by continuous, sometimes subtle advances, and also by a few key individual developments. The impact and attributes of these changes can be summed up in 10 trends.

(1) Closed Source Embraces Open Source
Oracle's announcement on October 25 that it would start to provide support for Red Hat Linux triggered a small earthquake that put Red Hat's stock price under pressure. While implementing this plan could be more complex than Oracle might have envisioned, the announcement highlights one of several reasons for the attraction of open source technologies: the appealing offerings they provide customers, as demonstrated in this case of newly generated competition even in support services. By comparison, the impact of the agreement between Microsoft and Novell regarding the use and interoperability of SUSE Linux and Microsoft Windows is still unclear, although that particular alliance did cause a minor uproar within the IT community. What was almost overlooked in 2006 was the news that Microsoft is working hard to integrate PHP and Windows servers/services further and that Adobe announced it would contribute its "ActionScript Virtual Machine" to the Mozilla Foundation.

(2) Less Obstacles, More Trust
The latest studies are loud and clear: open source is increasingly becoming standard fare in corporate IT portfolios. Where as recently as three years ago many companies couldn't conceive of deploying open source business applications, these doubts have largely faded away. Also, any client-side concerns regarding support and expertise have also begun to evaporate. Open source use, especially in infrastructure, has become increasingly popular. Furthermore, open source is now steadily being considered in application development or when new solutions and components are being selected.

(3) Standards Wars
In 2006, open source software triggered fresh debates regarding open standards. As such, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' explicit demand for the OpenDocument Format (ODF) as a document exchange format forced Microsoft's hand. While supporting the ODF format favored by OpenOffice.org, Microsoft has now also presented its own alternative, Office Open XML (OOXML), which the software vendor would like to see endorsed as an official standard like ODF has been. As such, users might once again have to face a choice, although having two standards is certainly preferable to having none whatsoever.

(4) Open Source Business Applications Rule with the Masses
Just one or two years ago, open source was encountered almost exclusively in the corporate or organizational infrastructure - if at all. In the meantime a clutch of open applications is providing their commercial competitors some competition. For instance, Alfresco, a document management solution, has taken hold in some businesses and organizations, while Compiere and SugarCRM are off to a running start in meeting CRM and even some ERP requirements in many small and mid-size concerns. In other scenarios where simplicity and cost efficiency are crucial, Pentaho or JasperSoft are busily taking on commercial business intelligence solutions. The growing influence of these new applications has resulted in they're now being included in the comparative evaluations of leading IT analysts side-by-side with their traditional competitors.

(5) Web 2.0 and Open Source - Yin and Yang
2006 was also the year in which "Web 2.0" trends were heard around the world. Google's purchase of YouTube (an online video solution with content uploaded by users) for $1.65 billion got people's attention. There is also a close correlation between Web 2.0 and the open source technologies deployed at most Web 2.0 companies such as Google, Amazon or YouTube. In addition to infrastructure stacks based almost entirely on the new open technology, open source programming languages and Web frameworks are very popular in the Web 2.0 environment in particular. Ruby on Rails, PHP/Symfony, Python/Django, Perl/Catalyst are only a few of the many examples. Interestingly, even in Java environments open source frameworks and libraries such as Spring, Dojo, or ZK are progressively being used for rapid development of innovative Web applications.

(6) No Major Lawsuits or Legal Disputes Regarding Open Source
Legal concerns are an impediment to open source adoption. The largest case, involving the SCO Group, moved to the back burner in 2006 and new cases barely made the news. Manufacturers protect themselves with bilateral agreements (think Microsoft/Novell). Interestingly, this development did very little to allay corporate concerns.

(7) More Money for Open Source
Large investments continue to flow into open source development, with new open source companies now having completed additional rounds of financing. Although the amount of investment in pure open source companies is still small compared to the capitalization of the software giants, it's a good indicator of the many heated discussions regarding business models. As such, some open source companies have changed their focus, securing new revenue streams.

(8) Government Agencies Deploy Open Source Strategically, Businesses Tactically
More and more we can observe a dichotomy in the way open source is being understood and deployed. Government agencies tend to deal with this issue strategically, asking themselves where else they can deploy open source solutions. Businesses, on the other hand, approach the subject more pragmatically and tactically. While doing a default evaluation of a particular solution or technology, businesses generally ponder whether open source might be an inexpensive or promising alternative in a particular instance. Several of the largest corporations are taking this approach.

(9) Open Source on Every Desktop?
Open source applications are becoming increasingly mainstream. When OpenOffice.org 2.0 was released, its Office compatibility and functionality thrilled more and more users. Some businesses and even a few government agencies are actively evaluating whether OpenOffice.org might just be an alternative to Microsoft Office, which is in use today. By 2006 Eclipse was on the market for five years and in many cases had become the de facto standard for developer desktops. As such, Eclipse RCP is commonly seen as an alternative to the popular Windows fat client or to a browser for highly interactive applications.

(10) Java Is Finally Open Source
On November 13 Sun Microsystems pledged its Java SE, Java ME, and Java implementations under GPL v2, and even contributed Java itself. This move automatically turned almost every large corporation into an open source user. In conclusion, there's the exciting prospect that the innovative potential of the open source community will continue to contribute many interesting innovations.