Matt Asay of Alfresco recently observed differences in the adoption of FOSS. He sees a lot of adoption in Europe by governments who support the ideals of FOSS whereas he claims that adoption in North America is mainly driven by enterprises "seeking to lower costs and maximize innovation". His comments remind me of a discussion I once had with someone a few years ago. We didn't talk so much about adoption, but rather about development of FOSS. Our conclusion was that the main driving forces behind FOSS are not the same in different parts of the world. Specifically, it seemed that FOSS development in North America was heavily driven by corporations, whereas FOSS development in Europe was mostly community driven. Finally, governments in Asia and other emerging markets, like Brazil, saw FOSS as a great opportunity to establish a healthy software development industry in their own countries and as a way to become more independent from the US.
tbm's blog
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