Source: Irving Wladawski-Berger

“Open source software (OSS) has become a driving force behind innovation, collaboration, and the democratization of technology,” said the 2024 Global Spotlight Insights Report. The report, published last month by Linux Foundation Research, analyzed regional and industry differences in open source opportunities and challenges and tracked year-over-year trends.

The report’s findings are based on the 2024 Global Spotlight Survey. The Survey’s 48 questions received over 1,250 valid responses on how OSS is being adopted, supported, and sustained across industries and regions around the world. Let me summarize its key findings.

A shift in priorities compared to last year’s Global Spotlight 2023

Confidence in the security of open source software remains robust: 68% of respondents believe that OSS is more secure than closed source software, consistent with the 2023’s results; those that said that OSS is not more secure than proprietary software dropped from 15% in 2023 to 21% in 2024, while those that said that they don’t know or aren’t sure if OSS is more secure increased from 17% in 2023 to 20% in 2024.

In which areas do you think there should be further investment in open source across your geographic region?In 2023 the top priority was government adoption of open source at 40%, followed by better funding of commercial open source startups at 30%, and open source alternatives to technology monopolies at 29%. In 2024, the top priority at 49% is open source alternatives to technology monopolies, followed by government adoption of open source at 40%, and better academic education at 31%. The change reflects the growing concern over reliance on proprietary platforms and the need for vendor-neutral solutions, especially when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI).

Regional analysis

The regional analysis shows that organizations demonstrate a strong commitment to open source use and contributions across North America (NA), Europe, and Asia-Pacific (AP), and are closely aligned in their adoption and promotion of open source practices.

North America and Europe show near parity across most measures with only minor variations. Asia-Pacific trails slightly in most categories. “The overarching story is one of convergence, where organizations across regions align closely in their adoption and promotion of open source practices.”

North America

A clear majority of respondents (77%) in NA believe that the open source development model leads to better software security compared with the closed model.   

Actions for increasing OSS use in NA:

• Developing a clear and visible OSS strategy (59%);

• Improving how we do secure software development (56%); and

• Providing automated tooling to support policy (51%).

Action for increasing OSS contributions in NA:

• Allocating employee time for open source contributions (55%);

• Funding OSS projects (55%); and

• Providing organization-wide education on the OSS value proposition (48%).

Europe

“Europe has a strong alignment with the principles of open source, with 82% of respondents agreeing that software developed using public funds should be open source. This sentiment exceeds the global average of 77% and reflects Europe’s commitment to openness, transparency, and collaboration, particularly in areas that intersect with public interest and governance.”

Actions for increasing OSS use in Europe:

• Developing a clear and visible OSS strategy (54%);

• Improving how we do secure software development (49%);

• Improving legal, compliance, or security support (48%).

Action for increasing OSS contributions in Europe:

• Allocating employee time for open source contributions (57%);

• Funding OSS projects (55%);

• Providing organization-wide education on the OSS value proposition (52%).

Asia-Pacific

The 2024 survey results show AP’s cautious yet optimistic outlook on open source engagement.

Actions for increasing OSS use in AP:

• Developing a clear and visible OSS strategy (51%);

• Improving how we do secure software development (49%);

• Improving or supporting training and guidance (49%).

Action for increasing OSS contributions in AP:

• Providing organization-wide education on the OSS value proposition (52%);

• Providing clear policies to employees (50%);

• Allocating employee time for open source contributions (48%).

“While regulatory uncertainty remains a global theme, Asia-Pacific respondents are the least unsure compared with other regions, with only 34% expressing uncertainty about the impact of new regulations — lower than the global average. Furthermore, 37% of respondents in the region believe that global regulatory changes will positively influence open source participation, making Asia-Pacific the most optimistic region.”

Industry analysis

The LF study analyzed the use and contribution to OSS across 16 different industry sectors. On average, 59% of organizations across all industry sectors have permissive OSS use policies, while 46% have permissive contribution policies. Not surprisingly, the IT sector leads all others in both use and contribution to OSS, followed closely by the media sector.

To delve deeper into how different industries engage with open source, the report merged the 16 industry categories into six sectors: cross-industry IT, telecommunications and media, industrial and manufacturing, government and public services, healthcare and life sciences, and financial services. Let me briefly discuss each of these six sectors.

Cross-industry IT. The top benefits of OSS in this sector are:

• Industry standards and interoperability (62%), where OSS is the unifying force across complex multi-vendor environments;

• Innovation (59%), where OSS makes it possible for diverse companies to experiment with cutting-edge technologies; and

• Reduced product development costs (53%), where OSS allows companies to build their proprietary applications on a common, community-tested open infrastructure rather than unnecessarily reinventing the wheel.

The technologies that most benefit from the use of OSS in the cross-industry IT sector are AI and machine learning (ML) (50%),  followed by operating systems (33%), and cloud and containers (30%), while most OSS contributions are in cloud/containers (33%), CI/CD (30%), and Web and app development (28%).

Telecommunications and media. The top benefits of OSS in this sector are: innovation (61%), followed by productivity (56%), and then transparency (53%), — which is critical for building trust in such a highly scrutinized industry.

The technologies that most benefit from the use of OSS in telecom and media are AI/ML (44%), followed by cloud/containers (34%), and operating systems (34%); most OSS contributions are in cloud/containers (25%), followed by CI/CD (22%), and networking (22%).

Industrial and manufacturing. The technologies that most benefit from the use of OSS in this industry sector are operating systems (37% ), AI/ML (33%), and cybersecurity (30%), while most OSS contributions are in operating systems (23%), IoT and embedded ( 21%), and cloud/containers (17%).

Government and public services. The technologies that most benefit from the use of OSS in this sector are AI/ML (47%), operating systems (37%), and analytics & data science (30%), while most OSS contributions are in Web and app dev (20%), operating systems (19%), and AI/ML (16%).

Healthcare and life sciences. The technologies that most benefit from the use of OSS in this sector are AI/ML (37%), cybersecurity (34%), and analytics/data science (27%), while most OSS contributions are in AI/ML (22%), analytics and data science (17%), and Web and app development (15%).

Financial services. The technologies that most benefit from the use of OSS in financial services are AI and ML (46%), cloud/containers (36%), and CI/CD (32%), while,most OSS contributions are in DevOps (23%), CI/CD (23%), and Web and app dev (21%).

The top benefits of OSS in the financial services sector are: industry standards and interoperability (59%), reduced product development costs (54%), and innovation (53%) which enables the sector to adapt to emerging trends.

OSS funding

“Half of all respondents report that most of their contributions are unpaid, revealing the prevalence of volunteer-driven work in the OSS community,” said the report in conclusion. “Among those who do receive financial support, employer funding is the most common source, with 25% reporting that their employers cover hours worked on OSS projects. Additional funding sources, including project-related revenue, individual donations, and fellowships, each account for 6% to 12% of responses.”

“From an organizational perspective, 37% of companies employ OSS maintainers to support projects essential to their business, with 74% of those organizations recognizing substantial value in employing maintainers This data suggests that while unpaid contributions are widespread, there is a growing trend of organizations directly investing in OSS to sustain critical software and drive mutual benefit.”

Irving Wladawsky-Berger is a Research Affiliate at MIT's Sloan School of Management and at Cybersecurity at MIT Sloan (CAMS) and Fellow of the Initiative on the Digital Economy, of MIT Connection Science, and of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.