I know that a lot of people are worried about the recent economic downturn but I think that it will make Open Source an even stronger force in the business world. And it appears as though Jim Whitehurst the President and CEO of RedHat agrees. In this ComputerWorld article he says that companies are looking to save money and OSS is in the right place at the right time. If you want more in-depth coverage of the situation, check out the Slashdot article.

One of the goals of my company is to get great software to those who need it most, and I think business are in real need of a solution that fits their needs and their budgets. Appliance based computing reduces costs even further by reducing complexity in your data center. Now you don't even have to install or maintain the software; just purchase the appliance and plug it in.