There are so many stories floating around the internet about how Linux is increasing its adoption here or is losing its hold there and every day those ratio's change. There is a much simpler and closer to home method of measuring Linux adoption and you don't even need an internet connection.

Nine months following the heralded official release of the GPLv3 licenses, and with the more recent addition of the Affero GPLv3, adoption has surpassed 50% of my projections.

In reading through IDC's excellent report, "2007 Industry Adoption of Open Source Software, Part 2: Project Adoption," analyst Matt Lawton stumbles across an intriguing observation in open-source software adoption. He apparently believes it is a weakness of the current open-source landscape, but I believe it is a strength. The observation? That IT departments do most of the services around open source, rather than third-party consulting companies.

So just what is it about Linux and Open Source that company owners and executives don’t like?

The Standish group recently completed an extensive study that examines factors influencing open-source adoption. Based on five years of research and analysis, the report provides intriguing insights into open-source adoption levels and the way that open source is reshaping the software industry.

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.

Open source is looking more attractive to software development managers who need to make their budgets stretch farther, as the enterprise can benefit from FOSS community's contributions. Here's how to participate in open-source projects and measure developers' success.

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."

"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."