On the fertile battlefield of open source vs. closed source, Nepal has signalled a change as free and open source software such as Linux has been adopted as a serious contender to commercial software, a la Microsoft.

It appears that Open Source Software's acceptance is growing rapidly the world over, and not just in the home or business setting. This is good news for FOSS advocates and fans everywhere! ...

Nepal's first FOSS Training and Research Center is opened at Brihaspati Vidyasadan School (BVS) at Naxal, Kathmandu, Nepal. This Center has been made possible by the financial help from Help Nepal Network and BVS Alumni and technical help from FOSS Nepal, the community involved in spreading free and open source technologies in Nepal.

On the occassion of Software Freedom Day (SFD) 2008, one of the three winners of the SFD 2007 Best Event competition, the FOSS Nepal community has issued "Kathmandu Declaration", that was signed by over 700 professionals, students and other FOSS enthusiasts, amidst the presence of Nepal's Minister of Science and Technology, journalists and government officials.

Organizations in Asia are not as ready to go open source for key business applications, experts in the region say. Over in the United Kingdom and United States, it is a different story with inclination growing, a survey has shown. An Accenture study of 300 large public- and private-sector organizations in Ireland, the U.K. and U.S.

Reception toward open source technology has been very positive across Asia, the top executive of a Philippine-based global software and engineering services company said.

In his note, Stallman made clear the difference between Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and open source as conceived by Eric Raymond and supporters in the business community. FOSS is not just "free as in free beer". Under FOSS software is free, not just for the user. The software itself has liberties.

I have been under the impression that GNU/Linux and Free/Open Source Software have been gaining popularity, especially within the last couple years. One trip to Google Trends proved me wrong.

True believers will tell you that open source browsers are much less likely to be exploited by hackers. Microsoft evangelists will just as vehemently argue the easy availability of open source browser code actually encourages tampering. Now that Firefox is gaining popularity, obscurity is no longer a defense, insist fence-sitters.