A few days ago, Kristin wrote about Marketcetera's first full production release of its open source automated trading platform. Aimed at hedge fund managers, traders, brokers and dealers, the system is standardized, open, scalable and modular. Ars Technica also points out that over 20 financial institutions have already adopted Marketcetera.

Of all of the industies deploying Linux and open source software, financial services have been among the earliest adopters. But what do banks and brokerages see in these emerging alternatives besides possibly lower up-front costs?

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.

Open source has long flourished on Wall Street. But the more dramatic shift for Wall Street right now is that it is considering open-source alternatives for fundamental, industry-specific applications.

"We would like to gather a group of users who would be interesting in confirming that their online banks and financial institutions work with Firefox"

Linux itself does not represent any great departures from previous technologies, but has led a technological revolution that is predicated on free software licensing.

Linux-based and Unix-based apps are becoming commonplace in the enterprise, but some sectors are still holding out. IDC and Info-Tech explain why our financial institutions are reluctant to take the plunge. Also: a consultant tells us where they could be missing out

The commoditization of equity trades is giving Web 2.0 open-source investment platforms a chance to win converts.

Wall Street firms increasingly are buying into Linux, but some still need convincing that open source licensing and support models won't make using the technology more trouble than its worth.