Three years ago in June, a venture firm gathered together a small group of media, vendor representatives and analysts, including RedMonk, to discuss its thesis on the importance of open source as a mechanism for adoption in commercial settings. After a presentation of its own model, a partner from the venture firm moderated a panel of senior executives from its commercial open source portfolio companies. Each described in detail how open source had enabled and transformed its adoption cycle within the enterprise at the expense of proprietary alternatives.