The Standish group recently completed an extensive study that examines factors influencing open-source adoption. Based on five years of research and analysis, the report provides intriguing insights into open-source adoption levels and the way that open source is reshaping the software industry.

The spirit of the open source movement operates under the assumption that software’s most valued resource, its code, should be freely available to everyone. Despite the obvious advantages of making code readily available to anyone around the world, there are some cultural differences that complicate the open source movement.

As open-source coding begins to appear with increasing regularity in commercial software products, government users need to be aware of the potential security vulnerabilities in open-source code, industry experts say.

"Not only is the free software movement a source of software and licenses, it is also a source of inspiration. In particular, free software has been cited by many in the nascent free culture movement as an explicit source of inspiration and point of departure.

If proprietary companies like Oracle can buy up open source projects and then take back their open source status, how can an enterprise depend on open source software?

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

Red Hat today published a new study together with Georgia Tech mapping open source activity across 75 countries. Officially called the Open Source Index (OSI), the final score is made of a number of factors including policies, practices in the Government, Industry, and Community.

In his recent Forbes article Cash Me Out (by way of The Register’s Open Season) Dan Lyons likens the assimilation of open source into the mainstream IT industry to the incorporation of gay culture into mainstream culture.

If politicians' attitudes towards Open Source software affects the way you'll vote in tomorrow's Federal election, you may be interested in the results of a survey of the major parties carried out by Open Source Industry Australia.