Every once in a while I'm reminded that some folks still have doubts that this whole open source software thing will really pan out, or that open source technologies can be sustainable in an enterprise context. While that viewpoint never used to surprise me, now it does. Open source was the new kid on the block what, fifteen years ago? And yeah, back then there was a lot of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt being cast upon it. Now open source is so pervasive in IT that it might as well be part of the air we breathe. But from time to time you still hear arguments that open source "isn't reliable" or might be OK for Google but isn't suitable for organizations with limited resources for support, development and troubleshooting. Like libraries.
So, partly for my own amusement, I decided to do a little thought experiment. Let's say we grant the anti-open source folks their due and remove all the open source components from our technology landscape. What would we have left?
Almost nothing.
As far as I can determine, all of our major enterprise systems, including the proprietary ones we buy from vendors, have at least one major open source component, the absence of which would render them useless.
The library catalogue? Runs on a linux operating system, apache webserver, and certain components are written in perl.
Our digital asset management system? Linux, apache, PHP and Lucene, under the hood.
Interlibrary loan? More of a proprietary stack in that case, but still uses an apache Tomcat webserver.
Institutional repository? Open source top to bottom, soup to nuts.
The main Library web site? Apache, linux, PHP.
EZproxy? Proprietary application, but still runs on linux and Apache.
Even hosted systems that we don't run ourselves generally have major open source components. I believe our discovery service has a Ruby front end, with a solr/lucene backend.
And so on down the line. In fact, after wracking my brains trying to come up with things that a surgical open source removal wouldn't break, I think I've come up with one: Our course reserve system runs completely on a proprietary stack. Of course, it hooks into the campus-wide authentication system running on open source software, so you wouldn't actually be able to log into it. But, should that day of open-source reckoning come to pass, you would know that behind the log-in screen the course reserves will still be there.