Open source should be on the short list when it comes to application-buying decisions in 2007, industry experts say.

While open source applications for collaboration, content management and CRM may not have reached the maturity level of Linux or the Apache Web server, they’re getting there. As a result, those tools are worth a look, even if it’s only a bargaining chip in negotiations with traditional software vendors.

“Open source has won the first battle: It is now listed among the default platform decisions,” says Dave Jenkins, CTO at online outdoor sporting goods retailer Backcountry.com in Park City, Utah. The next step, open source users agree, is moving up the stack and figuring out which open source tools are ready for enterprise deployments.

“Infrastructure open source products are essentially a no-brainer at this point, but the adoption of enterprise applications has been slow,” says Curtis Edge, CIO at The Christian Science Monitor, which revamped its Web sites with open source software last year.

Edge traces the lag in adoption to the fact that IT decision makers often don’t factor open source into their software-buying discussions, because they’re uncertain about newer open source tools.

For his part, Edge continues to expand the open source products on his radar. “There are a lot of new commercial open source products, and many more to come [this] year,” he says. “SugarCRM, Alfresco, EnterpriseDB lead my list of commercial open source products that are — or will be — ready for prime time in the next six to 12 months. I am sure there are many more.”