A Primer in Risk: Taking a critical look at common support scenarios for open source software
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6611591.html
This is based on an essay that already appeared in my blog. One of my main objectives was putting the word out that paid vendor support does exist for open-source, contrary to some proprietary vendor FUD that open source is neccesarily less well supported than proprietary. It is not.
I’ve realized only since writing the article, in discussions at my own library, that some people need some encouragement against the opposite error too—being willing to try open source software only if it’s vendor-supported, or has a large and already existing support community! But somebody’s got to take the first steps, usually. Hopefully this article keeps people from going too far in that direction too.
If the article also functions as an advert for LibLime and Equinox, fine by me. Note that both organizations get their URLs mentioned in the URL section at the end, hooray. I was careful to always mention both organizations whenever I mentioned either one, not playing favorites.
Bibliographic Wilderness 
Hi Jonathan, I agree that somebody needs to take the first steps. If we are waiting for vendors, they may never come as what the451 group research indicates that “there are few vendors generating revenue from open source software that are following a pure open source approach when it comes to developing all of their code in the open and licensing all of their software under open source licenses.”
I posted about the research by the 451 group here: http://scientometrics.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/open-source-in-organizations/