JP has valuable insight on why open source is not adopted, based on both personal and academic observations.
I remembered an old conversation with a friend, who said “Open source is Government of geeks, by geeks, for geeks!” Open source is geekland, and professionals are not invited! Now I think it is quite understandable why anyone with this perception will want to avoid open source at all costs. It also explains why most of the questions regarding open source sound as if the earthlings are asking about Martian life. Even the reactions start with disbelief and end with rejection.
The talk of source code, wikis, debates, patches, open contributions is so much against the corporate and proprietary culture. I don’t think anyone can deny the discomfort. And I am sure it is extremely difficult to ask them to imagine themselves in this geekland and see the benefits.
Except, if they try using open source as a user, instead of software professionals or a consultants, and realize its benefits. If you are about reject open source for a client, it might be worthwhile to start using an open source project for personal work and rethink about it. The benefits of open source are for the user, not for the business involved in it. The businesses get benefits because of benefits to the users.
Open source inherently starts with scratching a personal itch, see yourself as a user or solve personal needs. If you look at it as a third-party person, you will see it only as a blackbox. Once you start using it, you will perhaps see that it is neither about geeks nor about developers, it is about users.
