...at the expense of manual labor. Automation of processes drives down costs. That will be the name of the game. Also, I predict that adoption and usage of open source software will thrive while commercial software will suffer. Companies are going to be looking for ways to cut costs. Do they want to spend thousands of dollars on Win2k8, VS.NET, and SQL Server, or do they use Linux/Solaris, Netbeans/Eclipse, and MySQL/PostgresQL? Businesses who may have previously been unwilling to use OSS alternatives will be more than willing as budgets get tight. -Bryan

i would think silicon valley ruby types are probably a little more alarmed as they depend on startups/small businesses to get work etc... the java world seems to me to be somewhat more enterprisey and i think those projects probalby aren't affected as much in downturns; big companies and the government will still need the work.