I was hugely entertained by the latest piece of Microsoft spin: apparently the recession is putting a dampener on migrations to open source.

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.

MANY technology firms are floundering amid the recession. But many of the ones that offer services tied to open-source software—free programs written by volunteers who collaborate online—are boasting double-digit growth. Sales at Red Hat, the world’s biggest independent open-source firm with annual revenues of $653m, grew by 18% year-on-year in the first quarter.

MANY technology firms are floundering amid the recession. But many of the ones that offer services tied to open-source software—free programs written by volunteers who collaborate online—are boasting double-digit growth.

Is free and open source software (FOSS) a way to cut business costs? As concern about recession deepens, more and more companies are asking this question. The safest way to explore FOSS is one step at a time.

WHILE THE GLOBAL recession may have many down in the dumps, it's apparently good news for Linux, with market research outfit IDC claiming it's going to come out of the crunch a winner.

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.

The end goal of the IBM-Novell alliance is to provide an enterprise-ready open source alternative to JBoss. At the same time, developers will have an opportunity to build on WAS CE -- the open source WebSphere Application Server Community Edition -- which is supported by both firms.

Coming at the time of an economy in recession it looks like Microsoft might actually be scared that customers might not spend money on a Windows upgrade. There's no way to go back in time and prevent the damage to Microsoft's credibility done by the Windows Vista release, we'll just have to wait and see what the future actually holds for Windows 7.