Open source omnipresent: Ubuntu, Docker and Python popular in companies

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According to a survey, companies are using open source programs more frequently. Around 58% state that they have increased their use of open source software (OSS) in the past year. In 38 percent of companies, the scope of use remained constant. This is the result of a survey conducted by the US software company Perforce. The most frequently used applications include the Linux distribution Ubuntu and the container virtualization Docker. The programming languages JavaScript and Python are also widely used in the majority of companies.

License costs are decisive for open source use

There is usually a financial motivation behind the decision to use OSS. Over 53% of companies justify the use of open source applications by citing savings in licensing costs. Around a third of companies state that they do not have to be tied to the ecosystem of a single provider. In addition, more than one in five companies see lower expenses for the development and maintenance of software as well as a higher development speed. Harvard researchers came to similar conclusions in another study, according to which software would be 3.5 times pricier without open source.

Companies invest most frequently in open-source cloud and container applications. Around 40 percent devote resources to these. A third each rely on databases and other data applications, as well as programming languages and frameworks. The latter recorded a sharp increase compared to the previous year. According to the authors of the study, this indicates an increase in the development of OSS in companies. One in five companies continues to invest in open source operating systems. In contrast, only five percent each use their resources for open blockchain and storage tools.

Kubernetes: usage figures doubled since 2021

In the area of cloud and container software, Docker is the most widespread in companies with a usage share of almost 60 percent. Kubernetes is used in around 40 percent of companies, more than twice as many as in 2021. More than a fifth use Podman. A similar number of companies use the monitoring tool Prometheus, which recently received new PromQL functions. At the same time, around 15 percent of respondents state that no cloud-native applications are used in their company.

Ubuntu is strongly represented on Linux computers in companies. Almost 57% state that they use the open operating system, which was last released in version 25.04. Almost a third have Debian systems. However, a quarter of companies still use CentOS, which is no longer supported, with most of them planning to switch to Ubuntu. RHEL is still used in more than one in five companies. Less than ten percent run OpenSUSE and less than five percent SUSE Enterprise Linux.

OpenJDK overtakes Oracle Java

In terms of open programming languages and runtime environments, JavaScript and Python lead the field with a usage share of 53% each. The use of Python has risen steadily lately. PHP comes in at 37 percent, Node.js at 33 percent, and C and C++ together at 29 percent. OpenJDK, which is used in around 28% of companies, beats the Oracle alternative, which is only used in around 15% of companies. In the previous year, both implementations of the Java platform were on a par.

More than a third of respondents state that their organization relies on the React.js framework when developing its own applications. Just under a quarter of companies use jQuery. This is followed by Spring and Spring Boot, as well as Angular and Django. For databases, the majority of companies (51%) use PostgreSQL, which was used more frequently than MySQL for the first time in 2024 (37%). This was followed by MariaDB, SQLite and MongoDB, each with a usage share of around 30 percent. Strong increases were recorded by Cassandra, Spark and Kafka from Apache.

Concern about support prevents companies from switching to OSS

Companies consider the constant maintenance of applications with updates and patches to be the greatest challenge for the operation of OSS. Almost two thirds of respondents mentioned this. In each case, 60 percent refer to security and compliance guidelines as well as the operation of programs that are no longer supported. In addition, 57 percent of companies lack sufficient personnel to operate and maintain open source software.

Conversely, around 44 percent of companies are reluctant to switch from proprietary to free software because they are concerned about professional support and maintenance. In addition, one in four companies uses additional functions and user-defined setting options that are only included in commercial programs. There are further concerns about compliance, license conditions and the reliability of OSS. In addition, a fifth of those surveyed consider open software to be more difficult to use than commercial applications.

Perforce cooperated with the Open Source Initiative and the Eclipse Foundation for the study. The authors interviewed employees from various industries, mainly from Europe and North America, about the use of OSS in their organizations.

(sfe)