In case anyone hasn't been paying attention, apparently the US economy isn't doing too well these days. There is a lot of news lately about banks failing, government bail-outs, and natural disasters that will cost us all a lot of money (thanks, Ike).

I start to wonder if small-to-medium or even larger organizations will begin to pay more attention to FOSS solutions during these belt-tightening times. Instead of upgrading a fleet of outdated hardware that could be renewed with a fresh Linux installation, or paying through the nose for 50 licenses for some expensive piece of proprietary software, will more businesses with their eyes intently focused on the bottom line look to free and open solutions?

My perspective tends toward the web side of things, which leads me to think about things such as open source CMS solutions. With a tight budget, you can accomplish a great amount with Drupal, WordPress, and many others whose community contributed modules allow for many people to benefit simultaneously from a each individual contribution. I would love to see more businesses gravitate to these types of solutions, and give back to their respective communities rather than staying locked-in to proprietary technology.

What say you all? Is your company looking at more FOSS solutions to save money? I'd love to hear from people who are involved in these decisions, and really hear what is going on "out in the trenches."