Lack of a business-grade accounting system tailored for Australia's onerous taxation system has long kept even the most die-hard Linux fans tied to Windows, but all that is set to change with the open source SYMBOL Accounting.

GroundWork Open Source, Inc., the leader in open source systems and network management software, today announced that it has secured $12.5 million in its third round of venture capital financing. The Series C round includes new investors JAFCO Ventures, SAP Ventures, the corporate venture investing arm of SAP AG, and existing investors, Canaan Partners and Mayfield Fund.

I guess you have enough family dinner conversations about open source, someone in the family is bound to write a paper on the topic at some point. And so my brother has. Clark is finishing up his law degree at Stanford, heading to Wilson Sonsini to join its Technology Transfer group this summer, and has written a few papers on open source (I'll be posting his GPLv3 paper as soon as he gets it to me). This particular one is entitled "Monetizing Free and Open Source Software: The Red Hat Solution."

One way to know that the open source market is maturing is to analyze how fast companies are able to get to significant revenues. By "significant" I mean $10M and on a sharp, upward ramp. When I started in the business of open source (2000, with Lineo), it was horribly difficult to pull in $1M in revenues, much less $10M.

Talk to anyone who follows hiring trends in IT and they’ll tell you the same thing: having Linux proficiency is growing increasingly important in getting and keeping a job in IT.

From sysadmins to help desk workers to database miners, knowledge of open source has moved from being a cutting-edge “gee whiz” skill set to a must-have tool for IT staffers.

Matt Asay has some good advice for folks asking him for career advice: "Work for an open source company." I'd wholeheartedly agree. I'd like to add "or within the open source group of a traditional software company". (Yeah, Matt's advice is snappier).

Here's why I suggest the addition:

Many small businesses have avoided Linux for a variety of reasons: not enough applications, complexity of installation or that it requires too much technical know-how to run. The technology has matured over many years, which raises the question: how valid are these considerations today?

According to figures collated by Computer Business Review from vendor statements, venture capital companies ploughed $404.5m into Linux and open source-related vendors in 2006, compared to $175.1m in 2005.