With the pressure of the recession bearing down on companies, several industry experts expect adoption of open source software to grow, as a result.

There’s a lot of chatter going around that open source excels in recession environments. I’m a little on the fence about that claim... but what I’m interested in talking about today is whether open source benefits anyone looking for a job right now. In theory, if open source companies grow in a recession, they should also be hiring.

While the recession has battered many U.S. software companies, Red Hat — which has staked its future on open-source Linux software, virtualization and cloud computing — has flourished.

Is free and open source software (FOSS) a way to cut business costs? As concern about recession deepens, more and more companies are asking this question. The safest way to explore FOSS is one step at a time.

Dana Blankenhorn makes some good points in a post from today titled Open Source in a Time of Recession. One of the better points is that, despite the incredible turmoil in global markets and economies, we actually haven't met the official definition of a recession yet here in the U.S., which would be two consecutive quarters without economic growth.

Something new will emerge from this recession but open source enters it on a fairly mature level. The legal framework and values of it are established. There are serious open source players.

Over the past few months there's been a lot of talk about the possibility of a recession. And for those of you working in various aspects of the IT sector, job security is certainly a concern. This type of financial climate change can often lead to a difference in the software buying habits of the casual computer user and those in the business world.

MANY technology firms are floundering amid the recession. But many of the ones that offer services tied to open-source software—free programs written by volunteers who collaborate online—are boasting double-digit growth.

The challenging U.S. economic recession has hit just about every segment of our economy--so how's it been affecting open source software development projects and their contributors?