Abstract
One of the most intriguing ways that commercial developers of software can become more efficient is to reuse not only software but also best practices from the open-source movement. The open-source movement encompasses a wide collection of ideas, knowledge, techniques, and solutions. Commercial software vendors have an opportunity to both learn from the open-source community, as well as leverage that knowledge for the benefit of its commercial clients. This paper looks at a number of the characteristics of the open-source movement, offers a categorization of open-source dimensions, and provides an analysis of the opportunities available to commercial software vendors when applying the lessons from the open-source movement.