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

The U.S. military is no laggard when it comes to open-source software adoption, but apparently thinks it can do better. The U.S. Department of Defense on Tuesday issued new guidelines designed to remove roadblocks to open-source adoption, arguing that open source can help the Defense Department "anticipate new threats and respond to continuously changing requirements."

One Course Source has announced its first annual open source conference, set for Oct. 3-4 in San Diego, Calif. The organization says the "One Course Source - Open Source Conference" (OCS-OSC) aims to "[address] the growing demand for alternative technology solutions that cost-effectively support and sustain the corporate IT environment."

"UK firms are lagging behind in the adoption of open source software, suggesting less government emphasis compared with other European countries such as France, Germany, Spain and Italy."

Open-source software helped London's Oyster card system move past a proprietary roadblock, an open-source conference in London was told last week.

It wasn't very long ago that open-source developers struggled to make the market believe that open source was secure, ready for prime-time adoption, etc. Now the debate has shifted to demonstrating just how widespread adoption is and and pointing to case studies of how to get the most from open source.

According to a recent IDC study, the market for open-source software has been accelerated by both the slow economy and increased acceptance from enterprise customers

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.

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.