Over time, cost pressure has led the IT organizations to consider open source for mission critical components such as database management systems (mySQL) or the operating system itself (Linux).
Open source has been used primarily in IT shops and especially on Unix platforms, where a number of necessary components are by tradition open source (things like file systemsor graphical user interfaces).
Even the relatively tangible repercussions -- such as the loss of indigenous industrial capability and the attendant, increased reliance on foreign suppliers for components of key weapon systems -- are typically dismissed, or at least subordinated to the perceived greater good of developing globalized relationships with trading partners.