From the Up on the Downside dept.:
The global economic crisis would provide a boost for open source software, Red Hat chief executive Jim Whitehurst claimed during a visit to Sydney this week.

Whitehurst, who stopped over down under as part of a tour of the Asia-Pacific region, said in an interview with ZDNet Asia's sister site ZDNet Australia that the crisis would cause companies to consolidate their technology infrastructure and reduce spending.

"So the bad news is when things get tight, people stop investing as much in the future," he said. "I would expect to see a slow down in spending for new functionality." However, the CEO said that this would cause more companies to consider open source software as an option.

zdnetasia.com