While the thought of Linux actually powering the massive financial exchange computer systems around the world would have been absurd just a couple of years ago, there is a growing feeling that the open source computer operating system is ready to make the jump. We are not talking about speculation, we are talking about solid performance figures which suggest it is possible. So what next?

The paper is particularly interesting because it focuses on how businesses integrate free software and open source components into software and services that they distribute to customers. This is an interesting contrast to most similar surveys that study FOSS adoption by businesses, because most surveys of this nature tend to focus on companies using FOSS as infrastructure.

Guest commentator Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols of Ziff Davis Enterprise tells what, in his opinion, is important about the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit going on right now in Austin, Texas.

We hear a lot about this or that open source business model, but rarely does anyone explain in a simple, succinct way exactly how an open source company makes money. In this video, though, Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst does exactly that.

I must confess to a certain disappointment with Red Hat. On the one hand, it is clearly the leader of the open source world – both historically and in terms of its size.

Ubuntu, the fastest-growing version of Linux, is starting to attract interest from the managed services industry. One prime example: Untangle, which develops security solutions for managed service providers, is preparing to add support for Ubuntu within the next few months, MSPmentor has learned.

After years in the shadows, the open source Python programming language is becoming increasingly mainstream. There are more users and more tools. Backers of Python now argue that Python is ready for the enterprise.