58.4% of respondents believe that open source has no borders and there is no "Russian open source".
58.4% of respondents believe that open source has no borders and there is no "Russian open source".
The science and technology publication N+1 conducted an extensive study on the use of open source software in Russia. According to the Open Source Security and Risk Analysis Report (OSSRA), 90% of modern software contains open source code. For example, such popular browsers like Google Chrome and "Yandex Browser", built on the open source Chromium project, but most web servers use Apache HTTP Server and Nginx.
The purpose of the study was to find out who is currently engaged in open sourcing in Russia and why, as well as what difficulties developers face.
661 valid questionnaires were selected for analysis, excluding data from respondents under the age of 18, as well as low-quality and incomplete questionnaires. Most of them (69%) were hired employees. Among them, more than a third of respondents (33%) work in large companies. Most of the respondents from among hired employees (60%) work in IT. The rest are representatives of other industries, including finance, industry, science, education, and the public sector. Respondents only answered questions related to their employment, motivation, and contribution to Open Source.
Such large Russian IT companies as Tinkoff, Astra, Postgres Pro, Qiwi and others took part in the study.
General conclusions of IT specialists about Open Source:
When discussing the issue of main employment and its connection with Open Source, the greatest involvement was shown by company owners (81.6%), followed by freelancers (73.2%), employees (64.7%) and students (58.7%).
Researchers attribute the high percentage of engagement to the fact that many companies that participated in the survey produce open source software and implement it in their work processes.
A pattern was also found: the more work experience an IT specialist has, the more often they work with Open Source. Among those who work in the field for less than a year, only 26.7% are engaged in open source several times a week, and with more than 10 years of experience, they are twice as many – 54.8%.
As for the prospects for the development of Open Source in Russia, almost half (48.9%) of respondents rate them positively, and 16% expect the decline of this segment over the next three years.
At the same time, the majority (71.7%) said that they are guided by selfless motives when participating in such projects, 58.9% consider it as a way of self – development and training, and 51.2% - as an opportunity to practice solving complex technical problems.
Respondents were almost equally divided on whether the state should interfere in the development of Open Source: 47.5% were in favor of participation, and 52.5% were against. The main risk associated with government activities in this area, according to respondents, is possible bureaucracy, as well as pressure or even seizure of control over projects by the state.
Company owners and managers, on the contrary, do not see this as a risk, probably due to better awareness of the specifics of government agencies, since they interact with them more often, and therefore may consider that concerns related to state interference in Open Source are exaggerated
It is noteworthy that almost 30% of those who are against state participation in open source projects still allow the possibility of accepting financial support from them, and 28.1% of those who are aware of state initiatives are neutral about them.
Researchers note that over the past few years, the state has been trying to encourage the development of Open Source, but 62.7% of respondents do not know about these initiatives, because they are "poorly represented in the information field." Nevertheless, the attitude towards government initiatives is generally positive: only 20.2% are negative, 51.7% rate them positively, and 28.1% are neutral.
Other research results:
58.4% of respondents believe that open source has no borders and there is no "Russian open source".
The science and technology publication N+1 conducted an extensive study on the use of open source software in Russia. According to the Open Source Security and Risk Analysis Report (OSSRA), 90% of modern software contains open source code. For example, such popular browsers like Google Chrome and "Yandex Browser", built on the open source Chromium project, but most web servers use Apache HTTP Server and Nginx.
The purpose of the study was to find out who is currently engaged in open sourcing in Russia and why, as well as what difficulties developers face.
661 valid questionnaires were selected for analysis, excluding data from respondents under the age of 18, as well as low-quality and incomplete questionnaires. Most of them (69%) were hired employees. Among them, more than a third of respondents (33%) work in large companies. Most of the respondents from among hired employees (60%) work in IT. The rest are representatives of other industries, including finance, industry, science, education, and the public sector. Respondents only answered questions related to their employment, motivation, and contribution to Open Source.
Such large Russian IT companies as Tinkoff, Astra, Postgres Pro, Qiwi and others took part in the study.
General conclusions of IT specialists about Open Source:
- 58.4% of respondents believe that "Open source has no borders and there is no Russian Open Source";
- almost 70% believe that a modern company should participate in Open Source;
- 98% use open source products.
When discussing the issue of main employment and its connection with Open Source, the greatest involvement was shown by company owners (81.6%), followed by freelancers (73.2%), employees (64.7%) and students (58.7%).
Researchers attribute the high percentage of engagement to the fact that many companies that participated in the survey produce open source software and implement it in their work processes.
A pattern was also found: the more work experience an IT specialist has, the more often they work with Open Source. Among those who work in the field for less than a year, only 26.7% are engaged in open source several times a week, and with more than 10 years of experience, they are twice as many – 54.8%.
As for the prospects for the development of Open Source in Russia, almost half (48.9%) of respondents rate them positively, and 16% expect the decline of this segment over the next three years.
At the same time, the majority (71.7%) said that they are guided by selfless motives when participating in such projects, 58.9% consider it as a way of self – development and training, and 51.2% - as an opportunity to practice solving complex technical problems.
Respondents were almost equally divided on whether the state should interfere in the development of Open Source: 47.5% were in favor of participation, and 52.5% were against. The main risk associated with government activities in this area, according to respondents, is possible bureaucracy, as well as pressure or even seizure of control over projects by the state.
Company owners and managers, on the contrary, do not see this as a risk, probably due to better awareness of the specifics of government agencies, since they interact with them more often, and therefore may consider that concerns related to state interference in Open Source are exaggerated
It is noteworthy that almost 30% of those who are against state participation in open source projects still allow the possibility of accepting financial support from them, and 28.1% of those who are aware of state initiatives are neutral about them.
Researchers note that over the past few years, the state has been trying to encourage the development of Open Source, but 62.7% of respondents do not know about these initiatives, because they are "poorly represented in the information field." Nevertheless, the attitude towards government initiatives is generally positive: only 20.2% are negative, 51.7% rate them positively, and 28.1% are neutral.
Other research results:
- what project storage services do community members choose?;
- reasons why respondents don't use Russian project storage services;
- is there a difference between "open" and "free" software?;
- the most active contributor in the country.
